5
502words
The bracelet broke and its beads scattering.
In the snow,I gathered them with fingers numb.
As I grabbed the last bead,it rolled into a sewer.
My heart froze.Blood dripped from my nose and my vision blurring.
My lover has completely abandoned me…
I woke in a hospital,saved by a kind stranger.
The doctor had called Ethan,chewing him out.
“You know your wife got infected during surgery and won’t live long?”
“Why aren’t you caring for her when she’s so unstable?”
Ethan’s voice shook.“What?Sarah’s dying?”
Perhaps because of guilty,he cared for me gently.
After all,I’d lost a kidney saving his love and was now dying.
“Honey,don’t listen to the doctors.Medicine’s advanced.You’ll recover.”
“Don’t call me honey.It’s disgusting from you.”
He was very sad.
After some days,Jessica visited,feigning concern.
“Sarah,you have to stay strong and get treatment.”
She could barely hide her glee,as if saying,“I’m very lucky.”
I was too tired to hate.I just wanted to talk.
When I eating a pomegranate,I recalled Ethan’s kindness at the same time.
For someone like me,who’d known only suffering,a taste of sweetness was unforgettable.
Jessica was frowned and puzzled.“But Ethan’s allergic to pomegranates.”
Her words were a lightning bolt.
Ethan was allergic to pomegranates.How could he buy mine?
I stammered,“But he did buy them!”
Jessicasuddenly was enlightened.“The person you mentioned is his twin brother.”
She showed me a photo of the brothers…
After their parents’ divorce,the older brother followed their father,Ethan their mother.
The pomegranate lover,my savior,was Nathan Carter.
I grabbed her shoulders and screamed,“Where’s Nathan?”
Startled,she said,“Dead.In the bus crash seven years ago.”
I spat blood,grabbing tissues to stem it.
Jessica fled,terrified,running into Ethan.
“Why’s Sarah bleeding?What did you do for her?!”
Jessica protested it wasn’t her behaviour,but Ethan drove her off.
Ignoring my bloody face,I tried to leave to find Nathan.
Ethan carried me back to bed and wiped blood from my mouth and nose.
“I need to find your brother…Can you take me to him?”
He realized what upset me,learning the truth.
He hadn’t lost his memory,and I wasn’t crazy—just my savior wasn’t him.
He roared,“My brother, that short-lived ghost is dead!”
I hit him,venting my grief.How did it come to this?
For seven years,I misted my benefactor and made a lot of sacrifices for it.
But the worst pain was that my true love was long dead…
My mental pillar collapsed,the sky falling.
A doctor sedated me,and I passed out.
That night,I braved the rain to the cemetery.
By morning,Ethan found me beside Nathan’s grave.
“Sorry I only learned your name now,mister…”
“I lost one of your prayer beads.Are you mad?”
“That day was the last time we met.…”
My heart ached,worse than my physical pain,a hundredfold.
Ethan stood in the rain and cried very sadly.
“All your kindness to me was because you mistook me for him…”
“Your love,your desire to be with me—it was for him.”
I gazed at his face,identical to Nathan’s,sighing.
“Why did he die? Why are you still alive?”
