Prologue

In a private office of the hospital, a patient was held securely by restraints in an experimental machine. Her chart listed her as a very disturbed woman who was diagnosed with identity dissociative disorder. She believed she wasn't herself but another person. The doctor's experimental procedure was her last hope. All other conventional therapies had been found to be ineffective. This procedure would remove the patient's delusional personality and return her to her true self.

A nurse entered the room. The nurse was Dr. Michael Doerrhoefer personal assistant. She was more than just his assistant; they had been dating for quite a while. Nurse Sputo was the only person that the doctor could trust. It would be unethical to use this experimental treatment on a patient without approval from the state. Such approval could take months.

The patient renewed her struggles when the nurse entered the room.

“Nurse Sputo you have to help me! They are trying to erase me. I'm not crazy! It's all my brother's fault.”

Nurse Sputo had always felt for this patient. Maybe it was because Ariana Grieco looked a lot like her. They might even be mistaken for sisters. That might have been one of the reasons that Nurse Sputo was helping the doctor. She truly wanted this patient to return to normalcy because she reminded her so much of herself, at least in the looks department.

“Ariana, you don't have a brother.”

“I'm not Ariana. My name is Heidi Patchonka. You have to believe me. I'm not crazy!” the patient shouted.

To waste time and calm the patient, Nurse Sputo humored Ariana. “Tell me what you think happened.”

“It all started when my brother told me some horrible news...”

Chapter 1

“Heidi, I have some really bad news. Dad has died,” Eric Patchonka told his sister Heidi.

“Oh my god! What happened?”

“Heart attack. He went quickly.”

Eric relayed the pertinent details. Heidi started to cry.

Eric and Heidi were the heirs to their father's business and fortune. Although they were relatively young, in their twenties, they would have to take over the business and run it. Although they could sell out for a great fortune if they liked. But these details were secondary at this time, there was a funeral to plan and grieving to do.

Several days later, the funeral took place and then the reading of the will. Both siblings would get an equal share of all the assets. It would take a while before the complex will was finalized.

“I know what you want to do,” Eric said.

“You want to fix your nose. Mom and dad wouldn't let you. Now is the time to do it.”

Heidi was a pretty girl of twenty-six. But she reasonably thought that her nose was too big for her face. Whenever she brought it up with her parents, they discouraged her from doing anything about it. Now that they were gone, if she wanted to 'fix her face' she could do it.

“I don't know. Dad just died.

“That was months ago. It's time to move on. You can fix all those small problems.”

Heidi would also like to have a bigger chest, hers was tiny and maybe a few other cosmetic touches.

“Maybe you're right.”

“There isn't anything stopping you now. You can be the person you want to be.”

“I'll look into it.”

It didn't take long for Heidi to come around. It was something she always wanted. With Eric's help, Heidi found a surgeon to perform the procedures. Since the procedures would necessarily leave her eyes covered with bandages, Heidi would stay at the hospital until the bandages came off when her face was healed.

“It went marvelously,” the doctor informed Heidi about the surgery.

Heidi couldn't see herself, but she felt the bandages on her face with her hands. Her face didn't hurt. She could also feel her breasts on her chest. They seemed even bigger than she thought they should. They weren't cartoonishly large though. All seemed fine. Besides what if they were bigger than the modest B-cup she requested. A C-cup or D-cup would be fine, now that she thought about it. Anything was better than the barely there AA-Cup she had before the surgery.

The day came to remove the bandages. Heidi was hopeful.

Sitting up on the edge of the examining table, Heidi waited for the big reveal. The doctor snipped the bandages and then slowly unwrapped them.

“Wonderful,” the doctor announced when the bandages were all gone.

A mirror was provided for Heidi to see herself. She didn't recognize her face. Her nose was smaller as she requested. The rest of her face didn't look familiar at all. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty, but what she did look was a bit older. She didn't look 26 anymore. She looked approximately twenty years older. She looked like a middle-aged woman. Her skin wasn't as fresh and smooth as it had been. There were slight age spots, and the texture was a bit uneven. Fine lines could be seen if a person looked closely. Maybe of these problems would be fixed with makeup to allow her to look pretty, but she would never look 26 again.

Even if her face didn't look 'old' it also didn't look anything like it had. She expected her nose to be smaller, but she didn't look like she was related to her own parents at all. She looked like a completely different person. There wasn't anything she recognized about herself. Not even her hair, it had been cut and restyled. Somehow the texture of her hair even looked different than she had when she entered the hospital.

“What did you do?” Heidi shouted.

That was a rhetorical question the doctor didn't bother answering.

“I'll sue!”