My name is Nayeli Cardenas.

My twin sister’s name is Lidia.

We look exactly the same, but life had split us into two different worlds.

I spent ten years locked inside San Gabriel Psychiatric Hospital.

Lidia spent those same ten years married to a monster named Damian Reyes.

When Lidia came to visit me that day, I saw the truth immediately — the bruises she tried to hide, the way her shoulders curved inward, the fear in her eyes when she spoke about her three-year-old daughter Sofi.

“He hits me,” she whispered. “He hits Sofi too.”

Something ancient and sharp woke up inside me.

That night, we switched places.

I put on her clothes. She put on my hospital sweater.