Chapter 4My Brother Stole My Life And My Bride

I went back to the grind—the clock-in, clock-out rhythm of a normal life. But in a city like this, you couldn't escape the Miller-Bennett wedding. It was everywhere.

"A whole valley of flowers," a coworker sighed in the breakroom. "The florist probably retired to New Zealand after that paycheck."

"She looked incredible," another added. "It’s like a fairytale. Rich, handsome groom, beautiful heiress. Why can't my life be a romantic lead's?"

I kept my head down, burying myself in spreadsheets. But then, the inevitable happened.

"Hey, look at this photo," someone said, shoving a phone toward the group. "Doesn't the groom—this Liam Miller guy—look exactly like Ethan from accounting?"

The room went quiet. "Holy shit. He does."

"Same face, totally different lives. Talk about a glitch in the Matrix."

Of course we looked alike. We shared half our DNA. But that was a secret kept within a very small, very wealthy circle. To my colleagues, I was just Ethan, the quiet guy who worked too much.

I forced a smile. "People have doppelgängers. The guy at the taco truck downstairs looks like Ryan Gosling if you squint. Doesn't mean he’s winning an Oscar."

The tension broke. They laughed, moving on to the next topic.

The sun began to set, casting long, bruised shadows across the office floor. I stared out the window for a long time. Giving up on Nora wasn't as agonizing as I’d feared. It was a dull ache, like an old injury in cold weather.

Maybe we only believe in "forever" when we're young.

Nora had once sworn to me: "Ethan, if I ever betray you, I hope I end up alone and miserable."

Words are cheap. Now she has the money, the power, and the "right" brother. The gap between us was a canyon I could no longer bridge. To even try for revenge felt like a joke. The only thing left to do was pretend we never met. Pretend I never loved her.

I forced myself to forget the hospital room after the crash. I forced myself to forget the coldness in her eyes when her real parents finally found her and wiped me from her history.

"I'm sorry," she had told me, her voice like ice. "I have no memory of you. And frankly, I find it hard to believe I would ever fall for a man like you."

Nora didn't just lose her memory. She lost her soul.