Matthew had lived as a widower for twenty years, mourning the love of his life, Taylor. He had accepted her loss, though the pain never truly faded. But nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.
One moment, he was at the coffee shop, stirring sugar into his coffee, and the next, everything changed. His vision blurred, his arm went numb, and before he could react, the world tilted. The floor rushed up to meet him.
Then, a voice.
“Repeat after me,” a woman said urgently. “Say ‘The sky is blue.'”
Matthew tried to speak, but his tongue felt thick, heavy, as if his own mouth had turned against him. Then, darkness swallowed everything.
When he woke up, he was in an ambulance. And she was there.
Her.
At first, he thought his mind was playing cruel tricks on him, a side effect of the stroke. But no, she was real. Sitting beside him. Holding his hand.
Matthew blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Her face was older than in his memories, but those eyes—the same eyes he had fallen in love with—were unmistakable.
“Taylor…” His voice cracked. He whispered her name like a prayer, over and over. “It’s you. It’s really you?”
She didn’t answer immediately. Her grip on his hand tightened, but her face remained unreadable.
When they arrived at the hospital, Taylor stayed by his side. She spoke with the paramedics, calmly and with confidence. She moved like someone who had done this before, as if this was routine for her. But how? How could she be here when she had been gone for twenty years?
Hours passed, and finally, when they were alone in the sterile hospital room, she spoke.
“Are you really my husband?” she asked softly, her voice filled with uncertainty.
Her question struck Matthew like a thunderbolt. He stared at her, his mind a storm of confusion and desperate hope.
“Taylor… is it really you? Are you truly alive? Of course, I’m your husband. I’m Matthew. Your Matthew.”
She hesitated. Her brow furrowed in concentration.
“I’m alive,” she admitted, almost like she was convincing herself. “But… I don’t know if I’m your Taylor. I have flashes. Memories, but only in fragments. I don’t know. But when I saw you, for a moment, I felt like I belonged to you.”
Matthew felt his heart crack open. Fragments? Flashes? What had happened to her?
He told her everything.
He told her about the accident and about what he never got answers to. He told her about the empty coffin he had been forced to bury because officials believed wild animals had dragged her body away into the forest.
“I don’t know what else to tell you, sir,” an official had said to him all those years ago. “There’s no body here. There’s blood, car debris, but no body. Wild animals may have taken her. It’s happened before. The scent of blood draws them in.”
“What do I do now?” Matthew had asked, his voice hollow.
“We’ll keep looking. But… sir, I suggest you find closure.”
And so, he had buried an empty casket. He had mourned a wife who had vanished, never truly knowing what happened.
As Matthew spoke, Taylor’s eyes filled with tears, and suddenly, she broke down. She sobbed uncontrollably, struggling to catch her breath.
“I was in an accident,” she gasped between cries. “I remember that. But… after that, everything is blurry. There was a man. He said he found me in the car. I didn’t know who I was, but my jacket had my name on it. Do you remember it? The black one?”
Matthew nodded, his throat tight.
“Alister told me I was his wife,” she continued, shaking her head as if still trying to process the lie. “He said I was on my way to him when I crashed. He told me my family was dead. That he was all I had left.”
A fresh wave of sobs wracked her body.
“He kept me isolated. At first, I didn’t question it. He was kind. He took care of me. There was warmth in his touch, in his voice. I didn’t remember anything, so I believed him. He told me stories about our life together. He even had photos—fake ones. He created an entire past for me, and I… I accepted it.”
Matthew clenched his fists, struggling to contain the rage building inside him.
“But something always felt off,” Taylor admitted, rubbing her temple. “I had instincts I couldn’t explain. When people needed help—sick neighbors, injured animals—I just knew what to do. He told me it was a gift from my grandmother, that I’d always been like that. But I never felt like myself. And I didn’t even know what ‘myself’ meant.”
She sniffled, wiping her tears. “And then, I started having flashes. Memories. I saw you, Matthew. I saw a sister. A man I think was my boss. I didn’t understand what I was seeing, but I knew something was wrong.”
Her hands trembled as she gripped the blanket on her lap.
“Then, a few days ago, I came into town. I don’t know why. It was like something was pulling me here. And when I saw you at the coffee shop, everything changed. You collapsed, and without thinking, I ran to you. I knew exactly what was happening. I knew you were having a stroke. I knew what to do. And then… you kept calling me. ‘Taylor.’ Over and over.”
She paused, swallowing hard.
“That’s when it happened. Memories. Our wedding. Your smile. The way you laughed. It all came flooding back. I didn’t understand it, but I couldn’t ignore it.”
Matthew reached for her hand. “Taylor, this man. Alister. Where is he now?”
Her face crumpled. “I don’t know. He said he was leaving town. But I don’t know if I believe him. I left as soon as I saw you. I couldn’t go back.”
Later that night, Matthew’s mother brought a photo album to the hospital. Page by page, Taylor flipped through their past life together. Each picture seemed to unlock something in her mind.
“I remember this,” she whispered, tracing a wedding photo with her fingers. “I remember that dress. The way it felt on my skin. I remember this day, Matthew.”
Tears fell freely as she clutched the album to her chest.
Together, with the police, they tracked Alister down to a motel. He didn’t resist.
“I lost my girlfriend in an accident,” he confessed, his voice shaking. “When I found Taylor in that exact spot, lost and broken, I thought I could save her. Even if she wasn’t truly mine. I just wanted to give her a life.”
Matthew wanted to hate him. Wanted to scream. But looking at the shattered man before him, all he felt was sorrow.
Taylor, too, was torn. She felt sympathy for the man who had saved her, even if his actions had stolen twenty years of her life.
In the end, she chose to move forward. She enrolled in medical school, determined to use her instincts to help others.
“I’m going to be a nurse, Matt,” she told him. “This is how I’ll heal.”
They took things slow. Coffee. Lunches. Late-night walks. Piece by piece, they rebuilt something new.
Because love isn’t just about the past. It’s about choosing to move forward—together.
