Ethan watched me carefully.
“I wanted you to come with me.”
“Where?”
“Out of the country. With the money, we could have started over.”
“After pretending you were dead?”
“After leaving everything behind.”
“There’s a life insurance policy on me. You’re the beneficiary.”
The silence between us changed.
“Were you planning on leaving my life behind too?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
And suddenly I understood.
“You needed another body.”
His jaw tightened.
“I never would have allowed anything to happen to you if you cooperated.”
That sentence was worse than any confession.
“If I cooperated? What kind of husband says something like that?”
“One trying to save his wife.”
“No. A man who thinks he has the right to decide who gets to live.”
I slowly backed away.
“And the stolen money?”
“It’s safe.”
“Where?”
“That doesn’t concern you.”
“Of course it concerns me. You stole from your company, lied to your business partners, used your twin, and turned your own wife into an alibi without her knowing.”
Ethan inhaled deeply.
“Aiden agreed.”
“He agreed to stay in our apartment?”
Something shifted in Ethan’s expression.
I needed the truth.
“On our anniversary… who was with me?”
“I had dinner with you.”
“And afterward?”
He stayed silent.
“Who bought the flowers?”
“I did.”
“Who slept beside me that night?”
Ethan looked away.
Something inside me cracked.
“Answer me.”
“Aiden came over later. I had work to deal with.”
“You sent him into our bed?”
“You were already asleep.”
“That doesn’t make it okay!”
I grabbed a glass and hurled it against the wall.
It shattered.
“Do you understand what you did to me? Every time you needed to disappear, you brought another man into my home. He wanted your life, so he learned your voice, your habits, your memories. I didn’t even know who my husband was when the lights went out!”
“Aiden never touched you.”
“And you think that fixes it?”
Tears began running down my face.
“He photographed me for months. He watched me. He knew what coffee I drank, what time I came home, what side of the bed I slept on. Do you know why?”
Ethan remained silent.
“Because he was learning how to become you.”
And suddenly, the hundreds of photographs made sense.
Aiden wasn’t just watching me.
He was using me as a training manual.
To become Ethan, he needed to learn how Ethan behaved with his wife.
What made me laugh.
What irritated me.
How I reacted after an argument.
What memories he could mention when I became suspicious.
“Aiden was always jealous,” Ethan said. “Even when we were kids, he wanted everything I had.”
“And you saw that jealousy and used it.”
