How to Lose a Decade

Seventeen-year-old Ana has everything under control. Perfect grades, detailed plans for college, and a relationship that looks great on paper. She falls asleep thinking about tomorrow's chemistry test.

She wakes up a decade older.

The woman in the mirror has her face but looks tired in a way Ana has never been. The closet is full of expensive clothes she doesn't remember buying. Photographs show a wedding she never attended. And there are children's voices coming from downstairs.

A man appears in the doorway holding a crying infant. He's tall, blonde, speaks with an accent she vaguely recognizes. He looks relieved to see her awake, then concerned when she asks who he is.

His name is Lukas. They met in high school. According to him, they've been married for years.

Ana remembers Lukas differently. He was the student who challenged every opinion she voiced in class. The one who made her furious with his constant disagreements. They barely tolerated each other.

Now he's telling her about their daughter's favorite bedtime stories. Explaining that the infant is their son. Showing her manuscripts on her computer for books she apparently wrote. Describing a life that sounds wonderful and completely impossible.

The doctors say her memories might return. Or they might not. Either way, Ana has responsibilities now that won't wait for her to catch up. A two-year-old who needs her. A newborn who cries at odd hours. A career built on writing about love. And a husband who seems patient with her confusion but can't quite hide his sadness when she looks at him like a stranger.

Ana begins investigating her own past like a detective solving a mystery. What she discovers surprises her: the person she became made very different choices than the person she remembers being. Choices that terrify her and intrigue her in equal measure.

The hardest part isn't learning to care for children or remembering how to write. It's watching Lukas move through their shared space with easy familiarity while she feels like a guest in her own life. It's seeing the way he looks at her and knowing she should remember what put that expression on his face.

It's realizing that somewhere in the missing years, she must have learned something important about who she really is.