Faking His Death Chapter 01

Faking His Death Chapter 01

I knew my husband, Ethan Callahan, had faked his own death and slipped into his younger brother’s identity, and I still didn’t expose him.

Instead, I went straight to the base commander and told him my husband was dead, then asked him to have my husband’s name officially struck from the Army rolls and his service record closed.

In my last life, Owen Callahan died in an accident, and Ethan gave up his command as a battalion commander to impersonate him so Brooke Maddox wouldn’t be left a widow.

I recognized him instantly and demanded to know why he was stealing Owen’s life.

Ethan denied it without blinking and coldly ripped his arm out of my grip.

“Lena, I know Ethan’s death is crushing you, but you can’t just decide I’m him because you can’t face it.”

He shielded Brooke behind him, shoved me into an ice-choked river, and warned me to stop fantasizing.

My five-year-old daughter Nora sobbed and asked why Daddy didn’t want her, and he locked her in the old barn to “think about what she’d done,” leaving her hungry for three days and nights.

My mother-in-law spat that I was a walking curse, then kicked Nora and me out with nothing.

Ethan went around telling everyone I’d lost my mind, that my husband was barely in the ground and I was already making a play for his brother.

With the whole base and town looking at me like trash, I drifted through the dead of winter with Nora in my arms until I froze to death.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Ethan first became Owen.

…

“Lena, I’m so sorry. I never thought Ethan would be taken so suddenly…” Ethan said, his eyes red and his face carved into grief.

When they carried in Owen’s body, I cried right on cue and called him my husband, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Owen’s face was gray-blue, and he was dead beyond any doubt.

Ethan and Owen looked exactly alike, and no one suspected for a second that Ethan had swapped their identities.

After a while, I wiped my tears and said, “We can’t keep the body here. We should have him cremated today, so Ethan can at least go with some dignity.”

Ethan nodded immediately, more eager than I was to make the body disappear.

As he shifted the stretcher, I caught a glimpse of his hand and the thin scar in the web between his thumb and forefinger.

In my last life, that scar was how I knew the man breathing was Ethan.

This time, I acted like I hadn’t seen a thing.

Back then, Ethan and Owen had been sent out for disaster relief, and Owen took a blow to the back of the head and died on the spot.

Ethan refused to let Brooke be widowed, so he threw away his command and stepped into Owen’s name.

To everyone else, Ethan’s deliberate imitation was enough to fool them.

But I was his wife, and I knew him too well to be tricked.

I demanded to know why he’d abandon Nora and me and pretend to be his brother.

Ethan’s expression stayed flat as glass, and he denied everything while shoving me away hard.

“Lena, I know Ethan’s death is crushing you, but you can’t just decide I’m him because you can’t face it.”

I kept pressing him, stunned out of my mind, and he shoved me into the river during a brutal cold snap.

From the bank, he held Brooke close and watched me thrash in the ice.

“Even if you’re my sister-in-law, I won’t let you hurt my wife.”

Brooke hid behind him and called me a shameless homewrecker, saying my husband was barely in the ground and I was already trying to steal her man.

I burned with fever for three days and nights, with only five-year-old Nora beside me.

She cried and asked Ethan why Daddy wouldn’t admit she was his.

He said she was repeating my lies, and he locked her in the old barn to “think about what she’d done.”

It took me three days to drag myself back from the brink of death, and Nora had been left without food for three days and nights.

My mother-in-law cursed me again as a walking disaster and insisted I was the one who killed her son.

She threw us out on the street, not even tossing me a coat or a dollar.

In the middle of a blizzard, I pounded on the door and begged Ethan to save our child.

All I got back was his voice, cold as the storm itself: “Lena, you’d have to be out of your mind to think I’m Ethan. Face reality, and stay away from me.”

The neighbors all believed him.

They said I was born cursed, and I’d finally snapped and mistaken my husband’s brother for my husband.

With Nora in my arms and nowhere to go, I froze and starved until I died on the street.

Remembering it lit a fire in my chest, hot enough that I wanted to drag the whole family down with me.

Watching Ethan rush to cremate his brother, I thought, if you want to play house with Brooke, then I’ll let you have it.

You can be Owen for the rest of your life.