Matthew Cooper was feeling empty, as he was crying. He lost his wife, Prudence, in a car crash. He was crying over his wife. He was left with his son, Gunther, alone now. They loved Prudence, and now he needed to bury her.
Matthew needed to be strong for his son, but when he saw the grave of his wife, he couldn’t stop crying. They were both crying, along with his son. As his 15-year-old son returned to their house, Matthew was stying over his wife’s grave.
He stayed until the evening. When he decided to leave, he saw a woman dressed in black, and was walking towards the grave of his wife.
As Matthew slowed down his steps, where he was going to another direction, since he was watching her.
The woman had the same body shape with his wife. She reminded him of his wife so much. After she reached to his wife’s grave, she kneeled and cried.
“If she loved her that much why didn’t she just come for the funeral,” Matthew had thought.
As he was returning to his way, the woman took of her hat, revealed her face. Matthew was frozen with what he saw. He saw his wife. He was staying frozen, until the woman left.
He was not sure if he saw a hallucination or not, so he wanted to confirm. He rushed to the car park, and saw that the woman jumped into her white Mazda, and took off.
As he walked towards where the car was sitting, he saw a receipt on the floor, from a store 80 miles away from the graveyard. He decided to follow the car, and he ended up in a idyllic town in Wyoming.
He walked into the store the receipt belonged to, and showed his wife’s picture to them. “Have you seen this woman?
“That’s Purity,” the cashier said, “She just moved here several days ago. Why do you ask? Is she in any trouble?”
“No, she’s not. I’d just really like to have a word with her. Do you know where she currently stays?”
“Of course, this is a small town and everyone knows each other. Purity rented out an Airbnb. If you ask any cab driver, they’ll get you there. The name’s Hilly’s.”
“Thank you, ma’am, I appreciate your kindness,” Matthew thanked.
He went to the address, and knocked on the door. At first no one responded, but when he knocked again, the curtains moved, and the door was opened.
His wife hugged him, as she cried, “I’m so sorry,”
“How could you do this to me… to us?” Matthew said, as he was angry, and stopped hugging her.
“Oh honey, I went about all this wrongly,” Prudence said.
“What do you mean?” Matthew asked, “Come clean now.”
“It all started some months ago when I ran into a woman who looked exactly like me. Even down to the crown-like birthmark I have on my abdomen.”
“How is that possible?” Matthew asked.
“I think you should come in, it’s quite a long story,” and she started to tell the story.
“We struck it off immediately and met up a couple of more times to talk about the possibility of us being twins. It was during those meetings that she revealed how hard her life had been since she was abandoned in an orphanage.”
“Why was she abandoned?”
“I think maybe because our mom could only raise one child at the time,” she answered.
“That’s sad,” Matthew said.
“I thought so too which is why I tried to help by giving her things and sometimes money whenever we met.”
“And where was I during this time?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Matt. I guess I just wanted to be sure first.”
“That’s a weak excuse but go on with your story.”
“The threats started after I refused to give her more money than I usually did.”
“Threats?”
“Yes, she wanted to live a luxurious life at my expense because she believed she would have ended up like me had she been given a better childhood. When I started to avoid her, the threats became more elaborate and soon, blackmail followed.”
“Nothing I did was enough for her; not the small house I wanted to buy her and not the money I gave her without condition. One day we had an argument in the car and she threatened to kidnap our child.”
“I got pissed and said terrible things which also got her mad and we ended up fighting which is how the accident happened.”
“We crashed into a ditch and I blacked out. But when I woke up, I saw she wasn’t as lucky. I was scared of going to jail so I fled the scene and anonymously called 911.”
“But it was not your fault Pru, you should have told me. I could have helped,” Matthew said.
“I’m sorry Matt, I made some terrible decisions and caused you and Gunther pain.”
They returned to their home back, and had a long family meeting regarding the situation. Then they went to the police station for Prudence to turn herself in.
As time passed, and court date came, she was judged as innocent, and she was let go.
“I hope you’re in a better place now, Purity,” she said as she left flowers to her sister’s grave.
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