Twin Deception(5)

The young woman took Sadi’s arm and led her down the long white corridor. Sadi swallowed hard. It was the first time another person had touched her with kindness in a very long while. Her nerves were frayed and she was embarrassed to find that she was perilously close to bursting into tears. She shook her head and swallowed to clear the fire that was burning in her throat. The woman led Sadi down the twists and turns and mazes of rooms until she stopped in front of a solid wood door.

“This is the one,” the receptionist, or nurse, or whomever she was, said. Her voice was soft. Almost a whisper. Musical. Sadi liked it. She felt its calming effect like a balm to her frayed nerves.

She watched as the woman pushed open the door. Sadi’s heart stopped beating when she saw him. He was hooked to a myriad of machines and monitors, an IV bag dripping from a pole beside the bed, oxygen going into his nose. His head was bandaged, his leg and arm had white gauze as well but he was alive. Luke was alive.

Sadi was so relieved when she saw the rise and fall of his chest that she crumbled to the floor. She covered her face and sobbed.

“Hey now, surely I don't look as bad as that.”

Sadi started at the sound of Luke's deep voice. How could he possibly jest? That was something Sadi had always loved about him. How his spirit refused to be crushed.

Sadi allowed the young woman to help her off the floor and into a chair by Luke's bed. She was embarrassed but also moved to further tears by the compassion this stranger offered her. Sadi thanked the girl and watched her exit the room. She closed the door shut firmly behind her.

Sadi took Luke’s hand in her own, squeezing firmly as if to reassure herself that he was real, and that he was still with her. “Thank god you're okay,” Sadi whispered. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and leaned forward, placing a kiss on Luke's forehead.

She was almost afraid to touch him. Afraid if she did he would break. She couldn't quite believe that he was really here, whole and well and alive.

“Have you heard about Connor yet? Did they find him?” There was a catch in Luke’s voice that told Sadi she wasn’t the first person Luke had asked about his brother.

Sadi felt the bottom of her stomach drop and for a second she thought she was going to be sick. She could feel the tremor start in her hands, the sickly sweet heat wash over her.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain her composure. Luke was the one who had been through a bombing. He was the one lying in the hospital bed, tubes and machines hooked to his body. Not her. Yet somehow he was more put together than she was.

“I’m sorry I haven’t heard anything. I came right to the hospital when I found out what had happened. I don't understand Luke, who would do something like this?" The Pearson brothers were good men, well liked and even revered by their peers and rivals alike. It was beyond Sadi that someone would want to hurt them let alone bomb a building filled with innocent people.

Connor. Luke had asked about his brother. God, if Connor hadn't made it out, it would destroy Luke. Not only were the two brothers impossible to tell apart, they thought like one man. The two were an enigma to Sadi, their bond something she could never understand.

She had heard the stories of people who had lost their twin. That their life became groundless, unmoored. That the survivor always felt the empty spot where the other half of them had been.



Luke looked disappointed although he tried his best to hide it. Sadi suddenly glanced down at his wrist.

“Where's your watch?” It was the only way she could tell the two brothers apart. It had become a standing joke between them that if he ever took it off Sadi might accidentally pick the wrong brother. She had bought Luke a watch for their one month dating anniversary. It had been silly and inexpensive, but he had treasured it regardless and worn it ever since.

Sadi had been surprised when she moved into Luke’s house to find a whole dresser drawer full of other, more expensive watches. Some of them were worth well over ten thousand dollars, yet Luke always wore the cheap watch Sadi had given him. She remembered how she had flushed when she thought about it, how her chest had ached with the knowledge that Luke loved her.

“I lost it in the building,” Luke said. He glanced up at Sadi, eyes shining with uncertainty. “I asked one of the nurses about Connor. She did the best she could to find out what happened to him. All I know is that he hasn't been brought to the hospital yet.”





Chapter 3




Sadi heard the catch in Luke's voice. She could feel his dwindling hope and feel his pain like an aching hole in her own heart. She reached out and grasped Luke's hand firmly between her own. She stared down at the tip of the IV which protruded from his skin.