When my girlfriend passed away, I couldn’t stop texting her. Every night, I’d send, “I miss you.” It was my way of holding on. One day, the messages stopped going through. Her number had been deactivated.
The next day, I got a message—on Facebook. From her account. My heart nearly stopped. It said, “Hello, honey.”
I froze. I read the message over and over, trying to make sense of it. It felt like something out of a nightmare. I clicked on the profile—same photo, same posts, same final update before the accident.
Shaking, I typed back: “Is this some kind of sick joke?”
The message was marked as “seen.” No reply. I waited, heart pounding.
Hours later, another message arrived.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m her sister, Mira. I just got into her account. I’ve been reaching out to the people who were close to her.”
I exhaled, remembering Mira—her younger sister from overseas. We hadn’t talked much at the funeral, and she flew home the next day.
“I didn’t know her sister was using her account,” I wrote. “Why not message sooner?”
“I wasn’t ready,” she replied. “I only just opened it today. I miss her too.”
That hit me hard. Somehow, knowing someone else out there was still grieving brought strange comfort. That night, we talked for hours. About her. About what we missed. I told Mira how I used to text her every night. She told me she sometimes talked to her sister’s photo out loud.
In the weeks that followed, we kept messaging. It felt healing. Mira shared childhood memories I’d never heard. I told her about our late-night drives and dreams we’d never get to chase.
One night, Mira said, “It feels like she’s connecting us.”
I stared at the message. She was right. Grief had built this bridge between us. Still, I wrestled with guilt. It felt wrong to feel so close to someone else. But Mira never crossed lines. It wasn’t flirtation—it was just… human.
A few months later, she messaged:
“I’m coming to town. I want to visit her grave. Would you come with me?”
I didn’t even hesitate. “Of course.”
When I picked her up at the airport, I noticed the resemblance—not too much, just enough to stir something familiar. Her eyes held the same depth.
The drive to the cemetery was quiet. Then she said, “I was nervous to see you. I don’t know why.”
“I was too,” I admitted.
At the grave, we stood in silence. Mira laid a sunflower on the stone and whispered something I couldn’t hear. I stood back, letting her have that moment.
Later, over coffee, it felt… familiar. Easy. Like we’d known each other longer than we had. Maybe grief made time irrelevant.
Over the next few months, our conversations deepened. She opened up about always feeling in her sister’s shadow—not bitter, just honest. I told her I still planned a future with someone who was no longer here.
One evening, we sat in my apartment with wine and the weight of everything between us.
“I feel guilty,” I confessed.
“For what?” she asked.
“For this. For whatever this is between us. It feels like betrayal.”
She looked at me and said softly, “I feel that too. But maybe we’re not moving on from her. Maybe we’re just moving forward—with her.”
That line stayed with me.
Still, we weren’t romantic. We were two grieving people trying to find meaning in the same loss.
Then, suddenly, she disappeared.
No texts. No replies. Her Facebook account—gone.
I panicked. I emailed her. Nothing.
A week later, I got a message from an unknown number.
“Hey, it’s Mira. I need to explain. Can we meet?”
I said yes without thinking.
We met at the same café we’d visited after the cemetery. Her hair was shorter. She looked tired.
“I lied to you,” she said as we sat down.
My heart raced. “About what?”
“I’m not her sister.”
My mind froze. “What do you mean?”
“I never meant for it to go this far,” she said quickly. “I was her roommate. We were close, but not like you two. After she died, her parents gave me some of her things. Her Facebook was still logged in. I saw your messages and… I don’t know. I just needed to talk to someone who missed her like I did.”
“And your name’s not Mira?”
“No. It’s Rachel.”
I sat back, stunned. Angry. Hurt. Confused.
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I thought if I said I was just a roommate, you wouldn’t talk to me. But a sister… that felt safer. More accepted. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I just didn’t want to be alone in it anymore.”
She looked away, ashamed. “I deleted everything because I couldn’t keep living the lie. But I also couldn’t bear the thought of you believing it forever.”
I didn’t know what to say. Part of me felt betrayed. But another part knew what we shared—the late-night talks, the memories, the healing—that had all been real.
“You were there when I needed someone,” I finally said. “And I guess I was there for you too.”
She nodded, eyes glossy. “I’m so sorry.”
I believed her. I don’t know why. Maybe because the grief in her voice matched my own.