It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence or sentence fragment and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence/fragment. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.
This week’s Story Starter teaser is:
She held out her arms to hug me, but I knew this wasn’t my house — and she definitely wasn’t my wife.
If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.
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Missing!
By Tessa Dean May 2024
She held out her arms to hug me, but I knew this wasn’t my house — and she definitely wasn’t my wife.
I struggled to get out of the policeman’s grasp. He was trying to push me toward the woman I had never seen before. She continued to claim she was my wife and that she was so glad to see me at home.
“Sir, I don’t know who this woman is or why you insist on bringing me here, but this is not my house, and she is not my wife. Why don’t you believe me?”
“Sir, we found you wandering around, and we had just received a phone call from your wife that you were missing.”
“She is not my wife! I have never seen this woman before. I swear to you, I don’t understand what is going on here.”
The policeman stopped shoving me toward her. He looked at her and said, “Can you show me proof that this is your husband?”
She said, “Would our wedding picture help?”
“That would be a start, ma’am.”
She turned around and headed back inside to grab a picture off the shelf. She handed it to him. He studied the picture, which showed both of us in wedding attire, but it was a very recent picture.
He noticed that it was a recent picture and asked her for her wedding date.
“It was just last week. I can’t imagine why he says he doesn’t remember it. We had a very large wedding at a local establishment; although he had no family, mine was in full attendance. You can ask any of them about it.”
The policemen turned to me and said, “Sir, is that not you in the photo?”
“No, he replied, “It is my twin brother, Mark! I gather he never told you about me.”
“A twin brother,” she looked surprised. “No, Mark never mentioned he had a twin brother.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all, as he has done this over and over, and you are not the first woman he has married and pretended to be me. You will find that he is a con artist, and I am afraid you fell for it.”
“Sir,” the policeman asked. “Can I see your identification, please?”
I pulled out my wallet and showed him my license. It was in the name of Clark Brown.
“My brother has probably already wiped out your bank account and is on the run. That is his usual way of doing things. I am sorry, but I am not your husband, and I am sorry you were taken by him. The policeman is already here, so why don’t you file a report? If you look at your bank account or accounts, I am sure you will find them empty.”
The woman was dumbfounded and asked the policeman what should she do. He told her to gather all of the information she had, including her wedding license, and told her to check her accounts to see if what I had told her was true.
She took out her phone, pulled up her banking app, and cried out when she saw a zero balance on her checking and savings accounts. She had trusted him and added him to both accounts because he told her he didn’t have an account and that they should have joint accounts since they were married. She began to cry as the full implications of the situation hit her.
“Am I free to go yet? I have no idea where he is or where he would head next.” I felt sorry for her, but there was nothing I could do. I was no longer in contact with my brother as I didn’t approve of his lifestyle of robbing people. He had even gotten to me when he first started this chain of conning people out of their life savings. He pretended to be me and emptied my accounts as well. Luckily, I didn’t have much money, so he wasn’t really interested in me anymore.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
New Author’s Website – http://www.tessadeanauthor.wordpress.com
Author – Old Writing – http://www.finallyawriter.wordpress.com
About my life – http://www.tessacandoit.wordpress.com
Tessa Dean - Author 
Great plot.
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Thank you Sadje. I am starting to get back into writing again. I forgot how much I enjoyed writing there for a while. I have been collecting a lot of prompts to help me out.
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That’s really great my friend
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Well done! Now here is my question. Does Clark really have a twin brother, or is claiming that he has an evil twin brother while he — Clark — is the one bleeding all of these women out of their life savings? Is it all just a very clever scam?
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Now that is a very good question and I didn’t even think of it actually. Very clever!
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Part 2 to your story?
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Possibly. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I used to write serial prompt stories before my writer’s block of almost 2 years took hold. I am slowly working my way back into writing. I will keep it in mind. Thanks for the idea!
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