A Fighting Chance by Annalisa Nicole Page A

it’s not Max. But my wonder twin powers sense Kyle as he enters the room.  I barely held it together listening to Asher. I don’t know if I can take what Kyle has to say to me. I hear him take a seat in the chair that Asher sat in. I hear another person moving around in the kitchen and the rustle of bags, and things being placed on the shelves.
    “Chloe, I know you can hear me. I need to say some things to you, but I need you to really hear me. You and I both know we had an amazing childhood. We grew up with two loving parents who gave us everything we ever wanted. They would have hung the moon if we asked them to. We never wanted for anything. We had our dreams all layed out in front of us and knew what we wanted to do by the time we were seven. Going to college and medical school together wasn’t an option to us, it was a given. The day we graduated was one of the happiest days of my life. Mom and Dad gave us each our matching necklaces with the caduceus charm. I’ve never taken it off, ever since that day.”
    I reach for my own necklace and play with the charm between my fingers. That was one of the happiest days of my life too. I remember the picture mom took of us. We had big goofy smiles on our face and we were holding up the charms to each other. Both Kyle and I have that picture on display in our houses. I’ve never taken mine off either. Becoming a doctor with Kyle was all I ever wanted in life. My life was so simple and carefree until that one day. One blink of an eye. One moment in time, and I became a marked, damaged soul. Sounds crazy, but it could never be more true.
    “The day you went missing was the worst day of my life. I never believed the police when they said you left on your own. I knew you were upset about losing our patient and her baby. I was too. But I knew you’d never leave me without saying something to me. I always felt your heart and I swore I heard you talking to me at night when it was quiet. I used to wish the day was over so I could climb into bed and listen for your voice in the silence. So I could hear you talking to me, telling me that you were alright. God I swore they were real, that I could really hear you talking to me. My whole world fell apart, I felt like I was a lost half of a whole. Then mom and dad got divorced, and I didn’t think things could get any worse. My life seemed useless. How could I live as half of a human being?”
    A glass shatters in the kitchen after Amelia hears what Kyle said. Tears stream down my face as I hear just how much my kidnapping destroyed him. I only ever thought of myself and how terrible it was for me to be kidnapped. I never really stopped and thought about how it affected Kyle, my twin. He really is the other half of my soul. It really was me talking to him. I knew he could hear me. I just knew our wonder twin powers were real.
    “The day I met Amelia was a beacon in my dreary existence. She literally crashed into my world just when I didn’t think I could take anymore.”
    A quiet sob escapes Amelia as Kyle continues to talk. I’m so thankful for Amelia. Without her, I would never have been rescued and I would never have met Max.
    “I fell in love with Amelia, I think at first sight. She was everything I had ever dreamed of and nothing like I felt I deserved. She was my saving grace in a time when I felt like giving up. And just when I thought life had something good to offer me, she was taken from me as well. But, I didn’t crawl in a corner and shut everyone out. I didn’t give up. I was fucking mad, and I wasn’t going to stand for this to happen to me again. I wasn’t going to let the universe take someone else away from me that I loved. I fought back even harder. I need you to do that, Chloe. I need you to fight back. I need you to come back to me. I feel you slipping away. I feel that other half of my heart slipping from my fingers again. I love you, Chloe. As much as you don’t want to hear this, Max loves you too. We