A Devoted Boyfriend's Clone

Sophie Ryder held a tray of fresh organs in her trembling hands—my organs.Inside my abdomen, only my intestines remained. Everything else had been extracted."Once I transplant these into Adrian, he'll recover," Sophie said, her face lighting up with a smile. "He'll be healthy and live a long life."Even though my heart had been stolen, the pain rippled through me anyway. I understood then that I was experiencing a shared agony with my original body—the one I'd been cloned from."You owe Adrian this much for stabbing him and rupturing his kidney. His health has never recovered since that day."The truth was simpler: when my original self had discovered Adrian Corell's real intentions toward Sophie, he'd dragged Adrian out and beaten him to stop him from hurting her. Adrian had pulled a knife. My original body had fought back in self-defense and accidentally stabbed him.I couldn't hold back. A tear slipped down my cheek, and the pain in my chest intensified."I... it hurts so m

I turned to leave, but Sophie slapped me hard across the face."What did you do to the organs? Tell me!"My face burned. "I didn't do anything. Sophie, you can see Adrian's faking it. You removed the organs yourself with your own hands. How could I have tampered with them?"Sophie's eyes flickered with doubt.Adrian suddenly started wailing again. "It hurts so much, Sophie! Did Marcus put something in them to destroy them?"Sophie's face turned dark. She snapped her fingers at her staff, and they dragged me to a locked room."If anything happens to Adrian, I won't forgive you!"I didn't resist. I had only three hours left anyway. I pulled out my phone and prepared the video my original self had recorded for me. I scheduled it to be sent to the police at a specific time.I'd also written Sophie a letter, scheduled to be delivered to her email automatically.Once I finished, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders.I hadn't managed to fulfill my original self's final wish—to mar

When the clone died, all the organs he'd previously given away would disappear.Sophie had only one hour left before the organs she'd transplanted into Adrian would vanish.But this wasn't the biggest problem. Every person who'd bought organs from Sophie and received my clone's organs was already showing symptoms.Sophie slapped Adrian hard across the face."Were you faking the whole time?"Tell me—were you faking earlier!"You just wanted me to hurt Marcus, didn't you!"Now I could finally see it. Sometimes I wondered if Sophie was deliberately playing dumb. She'd always known what kind of person Adrian was. Yet she kept choosing to believe in him, over and over again.Adrian's face flushed red from the slap. He whimpered, "Sophie, I'm confused. I don't understand what you're saying. I wasn't faking."Sophie's tears fell uncontrollably. She turned to look at my clone's body and said quietly, "Marcus, I'm sorry."It had been so long since I'd heard her say my name so gently.

At the police station, Sophie sat with her hands cuffed, her eyes hollow and vacant. She looked like someone had drained the soul right out of her. I had no idea what was going through her mind at that moment.The officer told her, "Your boyfriend, Marcus—the one who just died—was a clone. Your real boyfriend was stabbed to death by Adrian five years ago."Back then, Marcus and Adrian got into a fight. You were so busy rushing Adrian to the hospital that you didn't even notice Marcus was hurt too."Before he died, Marcus went to his lab and cloned himself. His original body is still preserved in the lab, frozen."Those words finally got a reaction out of Sophie. Her eyes turned bloodshot."Take me to him. I need to see him."I wanted to ask her—what's the point? I'm already dead.The officers took her to the station morgue. My body lay there. Even though it had been frozen for five years, my face and body had deteriorated, twisted beyond recognition. The only thing still intact

Sophie tore open the bag immediately and found the wedding dress and tuxedo inside. She burst into wails."Marcus, I'm a monster. You wanted to marry me so many times, and I kept putting you off. I was so wrong."The housekeeper walked over to the refrigerator and opened it."Sir left so many meals for you in the fridge. And today, a restaurant sent food over too. They said Sir had pre-ordered it—because he knew you don't know how to cook and was afraid you'd go hungry."I had always been the one to take care of Sophie, to cook for her. So before I died, I made sure to instruct my clone to prepare meals for her before his time ran out. At least that would give her a transition period—because I knew that once I was gone, she wouldn't eat properly.Sophie crawled over to the fridge and pulled out a food container. A sticky note was attached to it: "No matter what happens, remember to eat."Her tears splashed onto the container, and the frost melted on contact. It was just like the