Chapter 20 I am eva
Flora
I was brimming with relief when Mateo confirmed I was allergic to seafood.
"I told you," I said, almost laughing despite my fear. "I told you I wasn't Eva."
It was as though a log of wooed was raised off my shoulders.
And then he said I developed the allergy five years ago.
That doesn't matter to me. I have the allergy that was all that matters. That proofs I wasn't Eva. The female doctor probably made a mistake with the DNA.
But when Rafael opened his mouth, what he said made my excitement vanish immediately.
"That proves it." His voice was filled with wonder. "Eva died five years ago. You developed the allergy five years ago. That proves you are her. Same DNA, same appearance.You came back to me!"
My legs wobbled. I staggered backward. My brain stopped working.
No. No, that couldn't be right.
"That's strange," Mateo said, frowning at his screen. "It's not possible for an allergy to develop post-mortem. Unless…" He looked at me. "Unless she really is a reincarnation."
"I'm not!" I screamed. "I'm Flora Rossi! I've always been Flora Rossi!"
But my voice sounded weak. Even to my own ears.
Rafael grabbed my hand. "We're done here. Thank you, Mateo."
He practically dragged me out of the lab, through the dark market, back to the car. I was in shock. I couldn't speak. I couldn't think.
Five years ago.
The allergy developed five years ago.
When I was eighteen.
I tried to remember that year. What was I doing? Where was I living?
But the memories were fuzzy and vague. Like looking through fog.
I remembered being seventeen clearly. My mother died few days after my birthday and my father died three months later. I started working at the Signor Benedetto's café. I was living in my apartment after my mother's siblings sold the house
But sixteen backwards? Those years were mostly vague. I remembered my experiences, but I can't give a clear picture to them.
We drove back to the estate in silence. Rafael kept glancing at me with that terrible smile on his face.
When we arrived, he led me to the master bedroom. Where he and Eva used to stay.
It was lavishly decorated. It was beautiful and elegant. Everything was white and gold. The bed was massive with silk sheets. The closet was full of expensive clothes. He had arranged Eva's clothes in the wardrobe already.
"This is your room now," Rafael said gently. "Where you belong."
He'd transformed it for me. Fresh flowers were everywhere. Eva's photos were hanging on the walls.
Everything was perfectly arranged.
"Get some rest," he said. "Tomorrow, we have a date. Our first real date since you came back."
He left, locking the door behind him.
I sat on the bed, my mind was racing.
The DNA matched Eva's. I had her birthmark. I developed an allergy the same year she died. I looked exactly like her.
What if Rafael was right? What if I really was Eva?
No. That was insane. I had memories. A life. A childhood.
Didn't I?
I tried to remember my childhood. My mother's face. My father's laugh.
The memories were there. But they felt distant. Like a story I'd been told rather than something I'd lived.
Tears streamed down my face.
Who was I really?
The next evening, Rafael came to get me. He'd had me dressed in the most expensive gown I'd ever seen. Red silk that hugged my body perfectly. Diamond jewelry that probably cost more than my old apartment.
"You look breathtaking," he said, his eyes filling with tears. "Just like you did on our last date."
He took me to a restaurant in the city. But when we arrived, it was completely empty.
"I bought it out for the night," Rafael explained. "Just for us."
He pulled out my chair like a gentleman. Ordered wine, appetizers and everything Eva apparently loved.
I just sat there, numb, as he talked about their life together. Their wedding. Their honeymoon. Their dreams for the future.
"We were going to have children," he said softly. "Three. You wanted three children."
"I don't remember that."
"You will. The memories will come back."
As I sat there, watching him talk with such love and devotion, something shifted inside me.
Rafael loved his wife. He would take care of her. He would give her everything.
And what did Flora have? Nothing. No family. No friends. No future except poverty and struggle.
But Eva? Eva had everything. Wealth. Status. Love.
What if I just accepted it? What if I became Eva?
I could go back to ballet. Hire the best teachers. Train at the finest studios. Maybe even open that dance school I dreamed of. Eva also had that dream.
I could have a life. A real life. Instead of just surviving.
All I had to do was forget Flora Rossi and become someone else.
Someone who had died five years ago and somehow came back.
I looked at Rafael across the table. He was watching me with such hope and love in his eyes.
He'd hurt me, tortured me and tried to break me. All in the name of bringing Eva back.
But this man loved Eva. And maybe, if I became Eva, he'd love me too.
I thought about my vague childhood memories. My blank year at sixteen. Our DNAs matched. We had the same birthmark. And I developed an allergy the year Eva died.
Maybe there was a reason I couldn't remember clearly. Maybe Flora Rossi was just a shell. A temporary existence until the real me could emerge.
Maybe I really was Eva.
Or maybe I was so broken by everything Rafael had done that I was willing to believe anything just to make the pain stop.
I didn't know anymore. And maybe I didn't need to know.
I looked around me. I looked at Rafael. He was beautiful. He was every woman's dream. He was the most respected man in Moscow. And I was sitting across from him casually. This was something Flora Rossi wouldn't dare dream of.
I shut my eyes, took a deep breath. And smiled.
Rafael's jaw dropped when he saw me. "You're smiling?"
I looked at him directly. Letting the words come out clear and strong.
"I am Eva.”