Woke Up A Stranger, Found My Love

I woke up in a hospital, my past a blank beyond my 18th year.

The doctor said I was 27, even a talented architect, and married.

But the woman they introduced as my wife, Sophia, was a cold, stunning stranger.

She looked at me with thinly veiled contempt.

She spoke of my nine lost years as a descent into breakdowns and "pathetic" dependence.

My supposed best friend, Ethan Vance, was her true confidante, a smirking rival.

Disgust curdled in my gut.

This wasn't me.

My 18-year-old self, full of ambition and drive, recoiled from this emasculated shadow of a man they described.