CHAPTER 23
Serafina
Rain begins slowly.
At first it’s only a few cold drops against my skin, then the sky opens.
Within seconds the rain is falling harder, soaking through my clothes, turning the dirt beneath my feet into dark mud.
I can barely hear anything over the pounding of my own heart.
Everything inside me feels too loud. Confusion, anger, grief.
The words they just threw at each other spin through my head until I can’t tell what’s real anymore.
I run straight toward the woods. Branches scrape against my arms as I push through the trees, the rain falling harder around me, the forest growing darker the deeper I go.
Behind me I hear Dominic’s voice.
“Era! Please—stop!”
But I don’t.
I keep running. I don’t want to look back.
I don’t want to hear another lie. My lungs burn.
Tears mix with the rain on my face until I can’t tell which is which.
Finally my body gives out and I stop in the middle of the woods.
The trees tower around me like dark shadows.
The wind pushes through the branches above, making them creak and sway.
The headlights from the road are gone now.
Only darkness remains.
And the sound of rain hitting the leaves, I turn slowly. Dominic steps into the clearing a few seconds later, breathing hard. His hair and clothes are soaked, rain dripping from his face.
“Era,” he says carefully. “Whatever you think you saw—”
“Why?!”
The word tears out of me before he can finish. My voice echoes through the trees.
“Why, Dominic?!”
My chest heaves as I step closer.
“Why did you fuck her?” The words taste like poison. “Was I not enough?!”
Dominic freezes.
“What are you talking about?” He angrily says. “It was a kiss that I didn’t want!”
“Stop lying!” I shout. My whole body shakes. “I saw you fucked Sophie!”
The memory crashes into my mind again. “That day I was leaving for the conference, I turned back!” My voice breaks as the images replay in my head. “I came back to the house and I saw you!”
My hands tremble as I point toward him. “You were in the bedroom.” My voice cracks harder now. “She was on top of you.”
The image is too painful to finish.
I choke on the rest of the words.
“I know it was her,” I whisper through the rain. “Her long blonde hair… on top of you, Dom.”
Tears run down my face as I shake my head.
“Why, Dominic?…Why?”
Dominic stares at me.
At first his expression is pure confusion. Then something shifts in his eyes. Understanding, slow, heavy. His voice softens.
“It wasn’t Sophie, Era.” The rain continues to fall around us. “It was you.”
The rain keeps falling around us.
Cold.
Relentless.
Dominic’s words echo in my ears.
It was you.
I stare at him like I’ve completely misunderstood.
“What do you mean it was me?” I ask.
My voice sounds distant to my own ears. Like it’s coming from someone else. Dominic takes a slow step closer, his expression filled with something I’ve never seen on his face before.
Sadness.
Regret.
“The night before the conference,” he says carefully. “You… you dyed your hair.”
I frown.
“What?”
“For months your hair was blonde,” he continues quietly. “And then you dyed it back to black.” The rain runs down his face as he looks at me. “That night—before you dyed it—we… we made love, Era.”
My stomach twists violently. “You dyed it black the next day,” he says. “The day before you left for the conference.” He shakes his head slowly. “I could never touch anyone else.”
His voice breaks. “I would never cheat on you.”
The forest feels like it’s spinning around me.
“No.” The word leaves my mouth before I even think. “No.” Something shifts inside my mind.
A crack.
A pressure building behind my eyes.
And suddenly—
Memories flood in. Not dreams. Memories.
The blonde hair. The mirror.
The feeling of running my fingers through it. A strange confidence I never understood. Something coils tight and won’t let go.
The conference. The office. Andrew standing at my desk.
The hair suits you.
I thought he meant because I wore it down. But he wasn’t looking at my hair style. He was looking at the color. Black.
Because the day before…
It had been blonde.
My breathing becomes uneven.
“No,” I whisper, refusing to believe what I just heard. My hands tremble as I look back at Dominic. “Don’t.” The rain mixes with the tears on my face. “I don’t believe you.”
My voice cracks harder. “You’re saying It was me?” My head shakes violently. “And I don’t remember?” “No.” I take a step back. “I don’t remember anything.”
My mind tries to piece the fragments together but they slip through my fingers.
The dreams.
The flashes.
“I don’t—” My voice breaks completely. “I don’t remember any of that.”
Panic claws through my chest.
I shake my head harder.
“Just… leave me alone, Dominic.”
I turn away from him. Ready to run again. But his voice stops me.
“Sera… please.”
The name hits me like lightning and I freeze.
Slowly, I turn back.
Rain drips from my hair as I stare at him.
“You’ve never called me that,” I say quietly.
Dominic’s expression softens.
Pain fills his eyes. “I know.” The wind moves through the trees as he looks at me. “Era…” He swallows hard. “Is who I married.” His voice lowers. “Sera, you...”
A pause.
Heavy.
Terrifying.
“You’re her alter.”
* * *
Rain pounds through the trees, the sound filling the forest like a drumbeat in my ears. Dominic’s words hang in the air between us.
You’re her alter.
For a moment, nothing moves..
The world feels suspended in the space between heartbeats.
“No…” I whisper, but the word feels weak the moment it leaves my mouth.
Because something inside my mind has already begun to shift.
The pieces that never made sense before.
The dreams, my memories. Just not the ones I remembered living.
Images flash behind my eyes. The blonde hair in the mirror.
The way people sometimes looked at me like they knew something I didn’t.
Andrew’s voice in the office. The conversations that felt half familiar.
It wasn’t confusion. It wasn’t imagination. It was her.
Era.
The rain runs down my face as my breathing becomes uneven. Suddenly the memories start pushing harder. The house. The bedroom. Blonde hair falling forward as someone climbs onto Dominic. His voice whispering my name. Not me, not Sera.
Era.
My knees feel weak because I realize something terrifying. That memory I thought belonged to another woman…
Was never someone else. It was me.
The forest spins around me as the truth finally settles into place. I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t imagining things. I wasn’t losing my mind. I was splitting it.
And somewhere inside me—
Era had been living an entire life I couldn’t fully remember.
The rain keeps falling and Dominic stands in front of me, silent now but I can barely see him anymore. Because the realization hits me all at once. Sera was never just a name I just made up. She already existed, she was me and I had no idea who I really was anymore.