After years of being a widower, Matthew is caught off guard when the first person he sees as hes having a stroke is Taylor, his wife. Except that doesnt make sense: Taylor was laid to rest 20 years ago. Is Matthew hallucinating, or is something else going on?
It happened so fast. I was adding sugar to my coffee at the coffee shop one minute, and the next, my vision blurred, my arm went numb, and the floor came rushing toward me.
“Repeat after me,” a woman said. “Say the sky is blue.”
I didnt know what was happening and my tongue felt thick in my mouth. Then everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes in the ambulance, she was there.
A collapsed man in a coffee shop | Source: Midjourney
Her.
At first, I thought it was a hallucination, a side effect of my brain misfiring under the strain of a stroke. But she was real, seated beside me, her hand on mine.
Her face was older than I remembered, but her striking eyes and warm smile told me everything I needed to know. Her face wasnt one that I would forget. Ever.
A close up of a woman | Source: Midjourney
It was Taylor, my wife.
The wife I buried 20 years ago.
She stayed silent as I whispered her name over and over, like a mantra I had learned and couldnt get out of my head.
“Taylor,” my voice cracked with disbelief. “Its you. Its really you?”
Her grip tightened, but her expression remained unreadable.
A man in an ambulance | Source: Midjourney
When we reached the hospital, she stayed by my side. I watched her speak calmly to the paramedics and later to the doctors. She moved with quiet confidence, like someone who had done this before.
It wasnt until hours later when the chaos settled and I lay in a sterile hospital room with only her beside me, that she finally spoke.
“Are you really my husband?” she asked, her voice soft but tinged with uncertainty.
A woman standing in a hospital room | Source: Midjourney
The question knocked the air from my lungs. I stared at her, my mind a whirlpool of confusion and hope.
“Taylor… is it really you? Are you truly alive? Of course, Im your husband. Im Matthew, honey. Your Matthew.”
She hesitated, her brow furrowing.
“Im alive,” she said gingerly. “But… Im not sure if Im your Taylor. I have flashes. Memories, fragments. I dont know… but for a moment, it felt like you were my husband.”
A woman looking upset | Source: Midjourney
Her words hit me like a gut punch. Flashes? Memories? What had happened to her?
I told her everything.
I told her everything I knew about the accident and everything that I didnt. I told her about the empty coffin that I had to bury because the officials said that Taylors body had most likely been taken away by wild animals, straight into the forest.
A steep cliff | Source: Midjourney
“I dont know what else to tell you, sir,” the official said. “But theres no body here. Theres blood, and theres car debris, but the body? Honestly… wild animals may have been involved. They may have taken her body, it has happened in the area before. Its the scent of blood that does it.”
“What now?” I had asked.
“Well keep looking. But I suggest closure.”
I told her about the years I spent mourning her.
A funeral scene | Source: Midjourney
And as I spoke, tears filled her eyes, and she began to sob uncontrollably. Through gasps, she began to explain.
“I was in an accident. I do remember that. I dont remember much other than that, but I know there was a man. He said he found me in the car. I couldnt remember who I was, but I knew my name was Taylor because I was wearing a jacket with my name on it. Do you remember that? It was black.”
She paused.
“Alister told me that I was his wife, and that I was on my way to him when I had the accident. He said my family was gone. He was all I had left.”
Her sobs turned into anguished cries as she recounted the life she had been forced to live.
A woman in a car after an accident | Source: Midjourney
“He isolated me, but I also didnt question it at first. He showed me love and care, even if it felt… odd and foreign. There was still warmth in his face and touch,” she said.
“We lived in a cabin deep in the woods. He told me stories, all these lies about our lives together. He showed me photos of us, fake pictures. I believed him because… I had nothing else. No memories, no identity. He was all I knew. And if Im being honest, I loved being away from people.”
My heart ached as she described her 20 years of survival. She cared for the man, cooked and cleaned, and tended to the animals they raised.
“But something had always felt off,” she said.
A cabin in the woods | Source: Midjourney
“I had instincts I couldnt explain,” she continued.
“When people came to me for help, sick neighbors, injured animals, I somehow knew what to do. He said it was a gift from my grandmother, that Id always been this way. But I never felt like myself. I didnt even know what myself meant. But recently, I started having flashbacks of my life before the accident. I could see you in them, my sister, even a man who I think was my boss.”
She paused, tears spilling down her cheeks.
A woman holding a deer | Source: Midjourney
“When I came into town a few days ago, everything changed. I somehow found myself at the coffee shop you were in. I was standing outside in the garden seating area when I heard the chaos inside. And then I saw you through the window. You collapsed, and without thinking, I ran to you. I knew what was happening. I knew you were having a stroke. And then you kept calling Taylor. Over and over. I asked you repeat The sky is blue because thats why they ask stroke patients to say on TV…”
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Her voice faltered, and she looked at me with an intensity that made my chest tighten.
“And then something clicked. Memories. Flashes. Our wedding day. The way you smiled at me. The sound of your laugh. It all came rushing back. I didnt understand it, but I couldnt ignore it.”
A woman standing in a backyard | Source: Midjourney
I reached for her hand, overwhelmed.
“Taylor, this man. Who is he? Where is he now?”
Her face crumpled.
“I dont know. He said he was leaving town, but I dont know if I believe him. I left as soon as I saw you. I couldnt go back.”
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An upset woman sitting in a hospital room | Source: Midjourney
The hospital room grew silent except for the steady beep of the heart monitor.
Later that evening, my mother brought a photo album to the hospital. She laid it in Taylors lap and flipped through page after page of our life together—our wedding, birthdays, vacations, and more.
Each photo seemed to ignite a spark of recognition in her.
A photo album on a bed | Source: Midjourney
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“I remember this,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I remember that dress. I remember the way it felt on my skin. I remember this day, Matthew.”
She broke down, clutching the album to her chest.
We decided to find the man. With the help of the police, we tracked him down to a motel on the outskirts of town. When we confronted him, he didnt resist.
The exterior of a motel | Source: Midjourney
“I lost my girlfriend in an accident right there about three years before Taylors accident,” he said, his voice shaking. “When I found Taylor in that exact spot, she was broken, lost, and didnt even know her name. I thought… I thought I could save her. I could bring her back, even if she wasnt truly mine. I just wanted to give her a life.”
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His confession was laced with tears, his grief palpable. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to scream at him for stealing twenty years of my wifes life. Of our life. But as I looked at the broken man before me, I couldnt summon the rage I expected.
A man sitting with his hands on his head | Source: Midjourney
Taylor, too, was torn. She felt sympathy for the man who had saved her, even if his actions were wrong. But as her memories continued to return, so did the love we had shared.
In the end, she decided to leave.
She moved to the city, determined to rebuild her life and reclaim the lost years. She enrolled in medical school, driven by the knowledge and instincts that had stayed with her through everything.
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A woman sitting in an apartment | Source: Midjourney
“Im going to be a nurse, Matt,” she told me. “I want to help. This is how Ill do it.”
For a while, we kept our distance. She needed time to heal, to rediscover herself. But little by little, we began to reconnect.
At first, it was tentative. A coffee here, a lunch there, a late-night walk to get ice cream. We shared stories, laughed at old memories that she could piece together, and slowly rebuilt the bond we thought we had lost.
A couple standing outside at night | Source: Midjourney
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Taylor wasnt the same woman I had married all those years ago. She was much stronger now, shaped by her years of survival and resilience. But in many ways, she was still the same.
The same warmth, the same spark, the same fierce love.
It wasnt easy. There were scars, both seen and unseen, that would never fully fade. But together, we forged a new beginning.
A smiling woman in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney
Love, I learned, isnt just about the past. Its about the choice to keep moving forward, to build something new even when the pieces dont quite fit the way they used to.
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And in Taylor, I found the proof of that. Against all odds, love had found its way back to us.
A smiling man | Source: Midjourney
What would you have done?
If youve enjoyed this story, heres another one for you |
I Made My Boss Regret Humiliating My Wifes Appearance in Front of the Whole Office
When Colin and his wife, Alice, end up working at the same company for business tyrant Mr. Taylor, they think theyve gotten a sweet deal while branching out to their passions. But after one mistake at work, Alice is ridiculed in front of everyone, causing Colin to retaliate. As the couple loses their jobs, Colin is left fighting for revenge.
Working as a driver for the owner of a mid-sized company was never the dream, but it paid the bills. If I had to be honest, I would tell you I had always wanted to own my own construction company, but life often works in funny ways.
A smiling man dressed as a chauffer | Source: Midjourney
The silver lining to being a driver was going to fancy places and working alongside my wife, Alice. Wed met years ago, long before we ended up working at the same place. But when Alice got the job as Mr. Taylors personal assistant, she dropped him my resume.
“Its going to be okay, Colin,” she told me one evening when we were making pasta for dinner.
“He needs a personal driver, and you can do that. Neither of us have to stay there forever, but the pay is good enough for the moment. So, until something better comes along for us, well have to make do.”
A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney
“I know,” I agreed. “Its just that this is so far from my dream that I feel as though Im going to get stuck in this. But its okay, Ill only get stuck if I settle. And Im not doing that.”
Our boss, Mr. Taylor, was a piece of work. On the surface, he seemed like the typical entrepreneur. You know, the sharp suits, always attached to his phone, and he had a way of talking that made you think he knew something you didnt.
A stern businessman | Source: Midjourney
But the truth was simple: Mr. Taylor was a man who thrived on control, and the tighter his grip on the company and all his employees, the worse things got for us all.
Read the full story here.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
