Stolen Life, Broken Heart

small, still body. He was gone. The sensory deprivation tank Sophia called "therapy" had stol

s anchor was smiling, reporti

n Thorne have finally tied the knot. The couple, who previously canceled th

a physical blow. Sop

the man she told

mbered, but from a dam of memories breaking. Images, sounds, and feelings

sn't Etha

rne. The real

he woman who was once mine, had st

es of the nurses, the sterile smell of antiseptic, it all di

th nothing but a blank slate. I woke up in a hospital

hat felt foreign but I had no reason to doubt. "Th

t she never stopped loving me. She spun a tale of my life as Ethan M

pe, she said, was a transplant. And miraculously, they had found a pe

f concern and hope. He looked just like me. My own face, reflected back at me

phia had pleaded. "It's t

greed. I gave my kidney to the man I thought was my estranged brother. I gave m

y, and then they t

My inheritanc

ow, m

ng in the fabricated life they built for me. He had my

the imposter, Ryan, laughing about their grand deception. They reminisced about how easy

ealization that this man wasn't his father hit him with the force of a

ustrophobia, his crippling fear of enclosed spaces and

old and dismissive. "He needs to get over

elled text message, sent from the

. I found Sophia standing outside t

. "Sophia, please! Leo is terrified of the dark, this could kill hi

son shouldn't be weak and afraid. He needs to get ove

ate. The silence from inside was absolute. Leo was floating in the saltwate

ophia's step-brother, the illegitimate son my father had always favored. They had planned it all. The "accident," the memory loss, the st

were murmur

And right after

n after they broke up. She stay

s a lucky man

d in my throat. They were

number I hadn't called in five years,

hesitant, surp

sounding alien, a ghost fr

of breath on

y gaze fixed on the smiling faces on th

is clothes and brushed the wet hair from his forehead. A cold, terrifying calm washed over

re and a

life. They

take it