Lena couldn't sleep.
Jay lay next to her, chest rising and falling steadily, but her mind refused to quiet. That keychain haunted her how could it survive all these months? And more importantly… why did it feel like it was meant to be found now?
She got up, careful not to wake him, and padded into the living room. The folder marked "The Vanishing" waited for her on the desk. She opened it again, the scent of old ink and unanswered questions rising.
There were two photos from that night the police report had listed only one. But her copy showed something different.
In the corner of one photo: a man, barely visible in the rain, watching from the trees.
She zoomed in.
The figure wore a gray coat.
Her blood ran cold.
That was the same coat Jay wore when she saw him at the cliff.
But that couldn't be. That photo was from three months ago.
She whispered, "Jay… were you there before the crash?"
The next morning, Lena didn't ask him directly. Instead, she drove to the local newspaper archives. She needed something real. Something from before her world twisted into doubles and doubt.
The archivist handed her a box of photos recovered from the accident site.
Most were too damaged. But one…
She froze.
A photo of Jay, standing with another man—same height, same smile. But not quite the same.
She turned it over. A date: two months before the crash.
And a scribbled name: "Project MIRROR - Trial Subject: J.D."
Lena's fingers shook.
"Trial subject?"
She snapped a photo and left quickly, her heart pounding with every step.
Back at home, Jay was making breakfast.
She slid the photo across the table.
His face changed.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, voice too calm.
"I should be asking you," she said, her tone harder than she expected.
Jay didn't deny it.
He sat down. "I was part of a research study. Back before we met."
"What kind of study?" she whispered.
He hesitated.
"A memory mapping project. For trauma survivors. They scanned your thoughts, behavior, even dreams. To… replicate personality patterns. Mirror therapy."
"Mirror," she repeated, ice crawling up her spine.
He nodded. "It was funded privately. Experimental."
"And the man in the photo?"
Jay looked her in the eyes. "My mirror."
Lena backed away.
"You mean… he wasn't your twin? He was a copy?"
Jay stood. "I didn't know they'd activated him. Not until the night of the crash."
Lena's voice broke. "Then who died on that cliff?"
Jay said nothing.
That night, Lena lay awake again. But this time, Jay didn't sleep either.
He sat by the window, staring out at the rain.
She joined him quietly.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she asked.
He didn't look at her. "Because you'd never look at me the same way."
She reached for his hand. "Then show me who you are. Not what they made you."
Jay finally turned.
"I'm yours, Lena. Always have been. But maybe the man who died… thought he was too."
She leaned her head against his shoulder, eyes filling with tears.
The truth was no longer simple. It had layers. Faces. Names.
But so did love.
And she wasn't ready to walk away yet.