The mistress in Me

I stood there, surprised and horrified, yet more composed than I ever was. Liam kept knocking on the door, desperate to explain.

But all my attention was on my own body, standing like a ghost from a bad dream.

She walked toward me... my own body. It felt strange to see myself approaching me. My face was twitching with rage, the corner of my lips curved in a grim line. I scanned my body. The usual brightness was long gone after working overnight for months.

"Yvonne! Is that you inside?" My own voice snapped me out of my daze. I looked up at her, Veronica, standing with visible annoyance.

"Yes. I am Yvonne," I said, gently lifting the kid onto the bed. My fingers twitched slightly, realizing that my body would shake at this point.

But knowing that my husband's mistress inside my body, using my face and identity, made me sick.

"Let's talk outside, my husband's mistress." I didn't hide the bitterness in my tone.

The girl looked confused but curled herself into a ball in the bed. I felt odd. How did this shameless woman turn such a loveable kid like this?

I turned, facing Veronica.

She froze. Her face turned pale. Her fingers clutched the hem of the yellow dress that I bought last summer.

It felt strange to call her mistress since she was in my body. As if I was cursing myself.

But she didn’t say anything else. Obediently, she walked into the living room.

All sorts of emotions—confusion, curiosity, rage, and pain, started washing over me like a rollercoaster. I wanted to slap her hard, pull her hair, or worse, shove her against the wall until she bled to death.

All kinds of dark intrusive thoughts started bubbling up on the surface as I walked toward the living room.

My whole body trembled as I walked through the hallway to the living room. I started feeling disgusted. Waking up inside the body of the woman who had been having an affair with my husband? Crawling in my bed behind my back with my husband.

Now I had turned into the mistress, and she had become me? She got my husband, my body and... my life?

I couldn’t wrap my head around the situation. My mind was a maze, unable to find a way out.

What should I do? How do I return to my body? Was this even real? Could souls swap like this? Why me? Why would she get everything — my home, my face, my name... after taking my husband?

I kept whispering to myself while losing my mind. By the time I walked to her, I noticed her phone which was technically mine now, scrolling frantically and my phone was on the table.

The sudden realization hit me to the core. I might have been in another person’s body, but I still had control over my phone.

I grabbed it and messaged my lawyer, an old friend to freeze all my assets, including the inheritance I got from my grandfather and a few trust funds.

I sent a new passcode to my lawyer, instructing that he must not give away any information unless I told him the passcode—even if 'I'stood right in front of him.

He replied with a puzzled question, wondering why. But I didn’t care. All I needed was to secure my priorities and my money.

I changed the password to my accounts. I transferred all my money from my personal account to my late grandpa's account which was still managed by me.

As I was busy sorting things out, my own voice rang out like a ghost.

"Did you get a pen drive yesterday?"

Her words made me freeze. My fingers paused midway. I looked at her, a frown forming between my brows.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, changing my screen lock. "What pen—"

My eyes widened when a jolt ran through my body. A sharp pain blurred my sight. My body hit the couch.

"A pen drive. Blue, with a red cross on it!" She described lazily, while typing something on her phone. She looked unbothered.

Her words sent another wave of shock through me. But this time, a rush of memories hit my consciousness. Now I remembered what I couldn’t recall this morning.

Yesterday, right after I settled down for afternoon tea, the housekeeper delivered a parcel that I didn’t remember ordering.

When I opened it, I found a blue pen drive. I had been confused but decided to check what it contained.

Now, as I looked at her, my heart pounded against my ribcage with a throbbing pain. "It was you!" I whispered. "In that video... you were with Liam!" My voice was eerily quiet.

I had completely forgotten about it after watching. I wanted to confront him, but I remembered acting normal when he returned, even cuddling him to sleep. As if the afternoon incident never happened. Was it effect of the pen drive?

"Why would you send that pen drive? What kind of drive was that? Is it all your doing?" I asked, trying to find some explanation.

She looked even more pissed. "I don’t know! What kind of joke is this? I was supposed to meet my in-laws, and now I can’t even do that!" she snarled.

Her sudden shift of mode made me confuse. She knew the pen drive. The one that had evidence of her affairs.

"Wait a minute!" I narrowed my eyes. "Not only are you a homewrecker, but also an adulterer? You’re married!"

Her face crumbled with embarrassment, "How dare you say that!" she screamed.

I gritted my teeth. "How dare I? You’ve been cheating with my husband for God knows how long, and you still have the audacity to question me?" My voice was icy cold.

She flinched, "I don’t care! Give me back my body. I no longer need your husband. Not only is he stupid, but he also lacks the courage to divorce you. Now that I’ve finally gained my husband’s trust, I can’t give up my marriage!"

I couldn’t help but laugh. "You want to have your own family while breaking mine?"

"Ugh! Stop talking back to me and listen." She frustratedly spat and stood up. Seeing myself so enraged before my eyes, it looked like I was losing my mind. I always maintained a quite composed lifestyle. So it felt weird.

"This marriage is important to me." She gritted her teeth. But the trace of desperation in her eyes was distinct. "My husband is filthy rich, and my parents—who disowned me—have finally agreed to take me back. I can’t afford to offend them!"

I crossed my arms. "Sounds like your problem. Whatever reasons you decided to send the pen drive to me had backfired. What did you actually do?"

"What?" she gasped. "I don’t know what happened! Give me my body back. I don’t want to be you!" She looked desperate as if she would have had snatched the body if she could.

"Do you think I want someone filthy like you to have my body and abuse it?" I crossed my arms, " You created this problem. Now it's yours to fix!"