Done Being A Shadow: The Wife's Escape

On the day I finally pried open the locked drawer in Marcus’s study, I didn't find a surprise anniversary gift.

I found a shrine to my father's business partner, Izzy.

Photos of a woman who looked exactly like me stared back.

That was when I realized my marriage was nothing more than an expensive lie. I wasn't his wife; I was a customized substitute for the woman he couldn't have.

The nightmare worsened when scalding soup was spilled at a restaurant.

Marcus didn't hesitate.

He threw his body over Izzy to shield her, leaving me to take the full force of the burns.

Later, while I lay in the hospital bandaged and in agony, he didn't come to comfort me.

He came to demand I donate a kidney to save Izzy.

"If we both needed a kidney, who would you choose?" I asked him, desperate for a lie.

"Izzy," he said instantly. "She has so much more to do."

He didn't know I was pregnant.

He didn't know that while he was begging me to save his mistress, the stress was killing his unborn child.

I wiped my tears and laughed.

"Okay," I said.

I signed the divorce papers and left them on his desk.

On top of them, I placed a medical report dated that morning: *Spontaneous Abortion.*

Then, I boarded a one-way flight to Montana and vanished, leaving him to wake up to a world where he had saved his mistress but killed his family.