A Wrong Surrogate for the CEO-Chapter 107: Twist

Lara was floating.

Her body was suspended in air, and as she looked around, there was nothing around her but the familiar, stifling darkness.

The blackness pressed around her, and she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she tried to see past the darkness, but nothing happened.

Where was she? Why was her body floating around in an abyss, supported by nothing?

Why was she feeling so impossibly light, like her body was made up of nothing but air?

She tried to move too, but her body refused. So Lara stayed where she was, floating in the darkness.

Then, all of a sudden, light flashed above her. Intrigued, Lara instantly started to move towards the light. To her surprise, her body responded to movements.

She immediately floated over to the light, and a sense of anticipation filled her. Was this the gateway that would take her away from the unending abyss?

The light seemed to be streaming in from a grate, and Lara peered into the brightness.

She was looking into a room. A hospital room to be exact.

There was a woman on the bed, hooked to a lot of machines. The sick woman looked extremely pale, and there was a man sitting at her bedside.

The man’s head was bowed as he held the woman’s hand, and when he raised his head, the sorrow in his eyes made Lara’s heart ache.

She didn’t know who the man was, but he was so sad, and staring at him made Lara sad too.

The woman on the bed was probably someone that meant a lot to him. Who was she? A wife? A sister?

Curious, Lara floated out of the grate and away from the darkness. The darkness tried to drag her back, but she pushed against it.

Lara floated closer to the sad man and stared into the face of the unconscious woman.

When she saw who it was, surprise slammed into her. The woman laying on the bed was her.

Lara was confused. What was she doing in a hospital?

And why was there a sad eyed man sitting at her bedside? She didn’t even know who he was!

The more she stared at her unconscious self however, the more what she had to do became clearer.

Lara knew what she was now. She was the woman’s soul, and she had been floating around for a long time. She needed to return to the woman in order for her to wake up.

Without thinking about it, Lara floated closer to the woman — herself — then she touched her forehead.

The moment Lara’s soul floated into her body, Lara’s eyes fluttered open.

Lara was awake at last.

~~

Curtis heard a soft gasp, and his head snapped up. Lara was staring at him, and his heart skyrocketed in his chest.

She was awake.

Lara was awake.

His wife, the love of his fucking life, was finally awake. After three months of being unconscious, she had finally come back to him.

The relief that slammed into him made him lose his breath. Tears stung the back of his eyes, and the heavy weight he had been carrying around for months dissolved away, fading into nothing.

Lara was awake.

Curtis leaned down, closer to her, before he spoke.

"Hello, love," he said softly.

Lara blinked rapidly at him, and Curtis smiled at her. She looked disoriented, and confused.

"I am so glad that you’re awake, sweetheart. You have no idea how worried I was. Don’t worry, everything is okay now. I’ll go and get you a doctor," he stated gently and stood up.

Curtis was almost at the door when Lara spoke.

"Hey," she called out. Her words came out as slightly confused, probing.

"Yes love?"

Lara swallowed past a lump in her throat before she spoke.

"I’m sorry, but...do I know you?" she asked.

The smile on Curtis’s face fell away immediately. His heart started to race as he stared at her, and fear trickled into his spine.

He took a step closer and stopped, his hands curling slightly into fists. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"What are you talking about? What exactly do you mean? I don’t understand," he stated, and his voice came out as frantic.

Lara’s expression turned apologetic.

"I’m sorry. I just...you were speaking to me as if you know who I am. And I don’t...I don’t think I know who you are. You’re a stranger to me," she whispered.

The weight that had fallen away from Curtis’s shoulders instantly materialised back, but this time, it was heavier.

He found it hard to breathe, and his head spun as her words settled in his mind.

Lara just asked who he was.

His wife just asked him who he was.

She didn’t look like she was kidding, and there was no sign of amusement in her face.

Which could only mean one thing. Lara didn’t know who he was.

She didn’t remember him, or the relationship between them.

Lara had lost her memory.

The realisation slammed into him and his knees buckled.

No. No. How could that have happened? How could she have forgotten everything, everything, that had happened between them?

"Are you..okay? You have gone a little pale. I’m sorry if my questions were a little bit weird, but I just...my brain is so blank. I don’t seem to remember anything."

A large lump grew in Curtis’s throat, and he made his way back to the chair he just stood up from.

Then he took her hand in his.

"Darling, I am your husband," he said softly.

Lara’s brows furrowed into a frown, and her eyes went wide as she processed his words.

"You are my husband? You and I are... married?" she asked.

Curtis nodded. His heart was pounding violently against his chest, and he was almost sure that she could hear it.

Maybe telling her that they were married would jog her memory back. Maybe she would remember.

But Lara’s confusion only grew.

"But that’s...that can’t be true," she stated.

"I am saying the truth, Lara. I am your husband," he repeated.

Lara shook her head. "No. No you’re not my husband. I know who my husband is. The name of the man I am married to is Mike," she deadpanned.

Curtis froze her her words.

What. The Hell?