Richard, 61, had lived alone ever since his wife passed away eight years ago. His children visited sometimes to help with money and medicine, but they were too busy to spend much time with him.
He had accepted that he would spend the rest of his life alone — until one day he saw a familiar name on Facebook: Anna Whitmore, his first love.
Anna was the girl he once promised himself he would marry, but he never got the chance. He remembered her with bright red hair like autumn leaves and a laugh that could make anyone smile.
Sadly, Anna’s family moved away, and Richard never got the chance to say goodbye. For years, he didn’t know where she was or what her life was like.
Seeing her again, now with strands of gray in her hair, filled him with warm memories. They reconnected, shared stories about their lives, and spent hours talking over coffee.
Not long after, Richard asked her to marry him — and she said yes.
Their wedding was simple. Richard wore a navy suit, and Anna wore an ivory silk dress. Friends joked that they looked like teenagers in love.
But that night took an unexpected turn.
As Richard helped her out of her dress, he noticed scars on her wrist and near her collarbone. Worried, he gently asked, “Did someone hurt you?”
She froze, then spoke in a shaky voice filled with fear and guilt. “Richard… my name isn’t Anna.”
She explained that Anna was actually her sister — and that Anna had died young. Their parents buried her quietly, and because people always said she looked and sounded like Anna, she started living in her sister’s shadow.
“When you messaged me on Facebook,” she confessed, “it was the first time someone saw me the same way they once saw Anna. I didn’t want to lose that feeling.”
Richard was stunned. The woman beside him wasn’t his first love after all.
At first, Richard was angry, but when he looked at her, he began to understand. Eleanor — that was her real name — had lived her whole life unnoticed, always compared to her sister.
“All I ever wanted was to know what it feels like to be chosen, just once,” Eleanor said as she asked for his forgiveness.
Richard lay silently beside her, feeling torn between the memory of his first love and the woman who had taken her place.
After a deep breath, he made a quiet decision: to stay with Eleanor, to accept the present instead of clinging to the past, and to begin a new chapter with her — one he hadn’t expected, but one they could share together.