Chapter 3 SECOND CHANCE 1

Elana lay on a bed in the hospital as her heart beats faintly and her chest rise and fall with shallow breaths.

A doctor checked her vitals and turned to the nurse, "She's stable now but still unresponsive, We'll keep monitoring her. Sometimes they wake up and sometimes they don't." "Okay Sir" the nurse nodded.

But deep inside Elana's body, something stirred. It's a spark and a flicker of something new, better put, someone new.

When she woke up, everything felt wrong. The ceiling above her was dull white and unfamiliar as she raised her head to check her surroundings.

A rhythmic beep echoed in the background. Her body ached-not in a sharp way though, it's a soreness that felt like she had been dragged through a storm. Her throat was dry, and her head spun when she tried to lift it.

She blinked hard as she tried to focus. The hum of machine was combined with the smell of antiseptic and she felt an unusual weight of a thin hospital blanket over her. All these attests that she was in some kind of medical facility.

But wait a minute , I didn't remember coming here. Oh well, I didn't quite remember anything.

"Ouch" she cried as her head spun and her vision blurred when she tried hard to remember something–anything that could give her a clue.

Later, out of nowhere, waves of realization flushed over her and she began to remember the events that had occurred in the past.

First, was my argument with Clarissa on why my driver had to be changed at the last minute. Then I remembered telling the driver to reduce his speed, and then there was this truck that charged towards us as if he had been ordered to...wait, did I just say "order"? If that was true then somebody wanted me dead or should I say "some people" wanted me dead.

"Ah! yes" I remember pleading for another chance to live so that I'll be able to fulfill what Roland and I had planned to do together in our new home, did I get it? Wow! I'm so grateful for this–thank God". She declared amidst her clapped hands.

Butt when her hands flew to her face-she froze. "These hands aren't mine", Gabriella declared. She brought them to her eyes and saw that the fingers were longer and slimmer. The nails were polished in a color she would never choose and her skin was a shade lighter than how she remembered it.

Panic rose in her chest and she glanced around until she spotted a small mirror on the bedside table. She grabbed it with trembling hands and when she looked into it, the face that stared back at her wasn't hers.

She dropped the mirror in fright and It hits the ground with a crack, but she barely heard it.

"This isn't a dream it's a nightmare".

She stood up and stumbled towards the small bathroom attached to the room–she managed to turn on the light and the mirror above the sink confirmed it.

It's the same unfamiliar face with high cheekbones, a sharp jawline and brown eyes where her used to be green–the hair was darker than what it used to be.

She touched her cheek as she half-expected the illusion to vanish. But the skin felt warm and real. So, she said to the reflection starring back at her in the mirror–"my name is Gabriela Reyes, I was twenty-five and I was supposed to get married. I was in love with Roland whom we both had a future but now, I didn't know who I was anymore". She muttered to herself.

A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts but before could answer, the door opened, and two people stepped inside.

The first was a man in a well tailored suit with steel-gray hair and beside him was a woman with an elegant posture in a blue gown which hugged her shape and accentuated her curves–she also had sharp eyes.

They looked like they had walked straight out of a boardroom into a hospital. The man's eyes flicked over her–his expression was unreadable.

"You're awake," he uttered in a deep voice.

"Who are you?" I asked as I looked confused