And in every generation, she married into the same family.
Then I heard a voice behind me.
My mother-in-law was standing in the doorway.
โYou finally found the truth,โ she said.
I stared at her. โWho is she?โ
Her eyes filled with something that looked less like hatred and more like fear.
โThatโs the problem,โ she whispered.
โShe isnโt someone else.โ
Slowly, she pointed at me.
โItโs you.โ
Then the grandfather clock in the library struck midnight.
And every photograph in the room suddenly changed.
That night, curiosity got the better of me. I searched the family archives stored in the mansionโs library. Hidden inside a collection of century-old photographs, I found a picture that made my blood run cold.
Standing beside my fiancรฉโs great-grandfather was a woman who looked exactly like me.
Not similar.
Exactly like me.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same small scar above the eyebrow.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten note:
โClaire returned again. Year 1926.โ
As I flipped through more records, I found the same woman appearing every few decades. She never aged. She never changed.
My future mother-in-law hated me from the moment we met.
She smiled in public, but in private she made it clear that I wasnโt good enough for her son. Every family dinner felt like a test I was destined to fail.
Three weeks before the wedding, she invited me to her mansion and handed me a small velvet box.
โI think youโll find this interesting,โ she said.
Inside was a key.
Not a house key.
Not a car key.
An old brass key with my initials engraved on it.
My initials.
My exact initials.
The problem was that the key looked ancient.
When I asked where she got it, her expression changed.
โYou left it behind,โ she replied.
I laughed nervously, assuming it was some strange joke.
But she wasnโt smiling.