I Woke, She Took Everything

Synopsis

After I spent three years in a coma, I woke to discover that my life had been quietly handed to someone else. My husband had found a woman who looked remarkably like me. She wore my clothes, slept in my bedroom, and lived as his wife while I lay unconscious. On the day I regained consciousness, he hurried from the room and locked the door behind him. Through the haze, I heard only a fragment of his phone call. "Don't come over. She's awake." The household staff addressed the other woman as the lady of the house. I was simply "the patient." He moved me into a guest room and squeezed my hand reassuringly. "Your health comes first," he said. "Don't concern yourself with what's going on outside." But somehow, everything that mattered, including my name, my marriage, and my home, had been relegated to the category of "outside affairs." At the party marking our fifth wedding anniversary, the woman sat at the head table wearing my wedding ring as though it belonged to her. Glasses were raised across the room. "To Mrs. Bennett's recovery," the guests toasted. She smiled graciously and accepted their congratulations. Then I emerged from the crowd. I said, "Which Mrs. Bennett are you talking about? I think you've mistaken me for someone else."