Chapter 18 Identical
Flora
The word matches echoed in my head like a death sentence.
My DNA matched Eva's perfectly.
I stared at Dr. Marchetti's screen.
"No," I whispered. "No, that's impossible."
Dr. Marchetti looked at me with something like pity. "I don't understand it either. I've never believed in reincarnation. I've always been a woman of science. But this…" she gestured at the screen "this proves me wrong."
"There has to be a mistake!" My voice rose to a scream. "Test it again! You made an error!"
"I ran it three times to be sure," Dr. Marchetti said softly. "The results are the same every time. Your DNA is identical to Eva Valserro's DNA."
Rafael was laughing like a madman.
"I knew it! I knew you were her! Everyone doubted me but I knew!"
I felt like I was drowning. The room spun around me. My whole reality was crumbling.
If my DNA matched Eva's, then who was I?
Was I really Eva? Had I somehow come back from the dead?
Or was I Flora who happened to have the same DNA through some impossible cosmic coincidence?
"I need to go," Dr. Marchetti said, packing up her equipment quickly. She looked disturbed and shaken.
"Rafael, this girl needs psychological help. Whatever is happening here, it's beyond my understanding."
"She doesn't need help. She needs to remember who she is," Rafael said. He was still smiling that terrible smile.
Dr. Marchetti left quickly, practically running from the room.
I sat on the bed, my whole body felt numb. Rafael knelt in front of me, taking my hands in his.
"Now do you believe me?" His voice was gentle. Almost loving. "The DNA doesn't lie, Eva. You are my wife."
"I'm not…" But the words died in my throat. Because what could I say? Science had proved him right.
"I know this is confusing. I know you have memories of being Flora. But those are false memories." He touched my face gently. "And now you know the truth. You're Eva. You came back to me."
Tears streamed down my face. "I don't feel like Eva. I feel like Flora."
"That will change. Now that you know the truth, the real memories will start coming back. You'll remember our wedding. Our life together. Everything we shared."
"What if I don't want to remember?"
"You will. I'll help you." He stood up. "Wait here. I have something for you."
He left the room, locking the door behind him.
I sat alone in the darkness, my mind raced. The DNA matched. That was scientific fact. But it didn't make sense. People don't come back from the dead. Reincarnation isn't real.
Is it?
Twenty minutes later, Rafael returned with his arms full of boxes.
"I'm giving you back your room," he said. "Your room."
"What?"
"You'll move into the master bedroom with me. Where you belong. Where we used to sleep together." He started opening boxes. "And I have gifts for you."
He pulled out jewelry. Expensive necklaces and bracelets dripping with diamonds. "Eva loved sapphires. I bought you this necklace for our second anniversary."
He draped it around my neck. The weight of it felt like a chain.
"And this dress." He held up a red silk gown. "Eva wore this to our last charity gala. She looked breathtaking in it. You'll look breathtaking in it too."
"I don't want any of this!" I tried to take off the necklace but he stopped me.
"Yes, you do. You just don't remember yet." He kept pulling things from boxes. Perfume, shoes, scarves. All Eva's things.
"And I've had the chef prepare your favorite meal. Seafood risotto with white wine. You always said it was the best thing you'd ever tasted."
"I'm allergic to seafood!" I shouted.
Rafael paused. "No, you're not. Eva loved seafood."
"That proofs I'm not Eva then! I'm allergic to seafood! If I eat that, I'll go into anaphylactic shock!"
He looked confused for the first time. "But the DNA matched."
"I don't care what the DNA says! I know my own body! I know what I'm allergic to!" I was sobbing now. "Please, you have to listen to me. Something is wrong with that test. I can't be Eva. I just can't be."
Rafael sat down slowly. Some of the certainty left his face. "But if you're not Eva, how do you explain the DNA match?"
"I don't know! Maybe I'm related to her somehow! Maybe we're distant cousins or something!" I grabbed his arm desperately. "Please, do more tests. Check if we're related instead of identical. Maybe that's what the results mean."
"Dr. Marchetti said the DNA was identical. Not similar. Identical."
"Then she made a mistake! Or the equipment was wrong! Or something!" I was begging now. "Please, Rafael. I'm telling you the truth. I'm allergic to seafood. That's a fact. If Eva wasn't allergic, then I can't be Eva. The DNA test has to be wrong."
He stared at me for a long moment. Then he pulled out his phone and called someone.
"Don't serve the seafood risotto. Bring plain pasta instead. With marinara sauce. No seafood." He hung up and looked at me. "If you're allergic, we'll test that too. A simple allergy test will prove it one way or another."
"And if I'm allergic? If I prove Eva wasn't allergic but I am?"
"Then I'll have to reconsider." He stood up and walked to the door. " He left, locking the door again.
I collapsed on the bed, my mind was spinning. The DNA matched. But I was allergic to seafood. Those two facts couldn't both be true if I was really Eva.
Unless Eva developed the allergy after death somehow? Was that even possible?
Everything was confusing.
Tomorrow they will do an allergy test. If I was allergic to seafood and Eva wasn't, that would prove the DNA test was wrong somehow.
It had to prove that.
Because if it didn't, if I really was Eva somehow, then Flora Rossi never existed.
And I would lose myself completely to a dead woman's ghost.
The door opened again. Rafael entered carrying a tray of plain pasta.
"Eat," he said gently. "Keep your strength up. Tomorrow we'll do the allergy test. And then we'll know for certain."
"Will you let me go if the test proofs I'm not Eva?" I asked without thinking.
"I didn't say that." He said coldly.
My heart sank. "Why not?"
"Because even if you're not Eva, you're still connected to her somehow. The DNA proves that you're a part of her." He touched my face gently. "And I can't let that go. I can't lose her again."
He left before I could respond.