The figure on the bridge stays perfectly still, frozen in the trembling glow of the streetlights.
The wind ripples the water of the canal and, for a moment, I'm no longer sure which one of the two is the real Noah.
I take a step back.
"Noah… look behind you."
He turns slowly.
And I watch his face harden.
"Nathan…"
The word escapes his lips like a prayer.
The silhouette walks down from the bridge, step by step, until he stands just a few meters from us.
And that's when I understand: this isn't a hallucination.
They truly are identical.
Same eyes. Same voice.
Except Nathan is smiling a calm, almost mocking smile.
"Three years," he says. "Three years without a word, and this is where we meet again."
Noah stays silent. His fists clench.
"Why now?"
"Because you're starting again," Nathan replies, taking a step forward.
"Starting what?"
"Lying. Playing the broken man to charm the first girl who walks by."
My legs stiffen.
"What is he talking about?" I ask, my voice tight.
Nathan turns to me. His gaze is so calm it becomes frightening.
"He didn't tell you? I wasn't the one driving that night, Léna. He was."
The ground falls out from under my feet.
"That's not true," Noah murmurs.
"Is it?" Nathan says softly. "Because I still have the scar. His disappeared. Mine didn't."
He pulls back his sleeve, revealing a long pale mark on his forearm.
Noah goes pale.
"Stop, Nathan."
"No. You're the one who destroyed Clara, not me. And now you're doing the same thing all over again."
I don't understand anything anymore. My heart is pounding.
"Explain yourselves. Now."
Nathan locks his eyes on mine.
"He found you on the same app he found her. Same way of talking, same places, same pictures. You think that's a coincidence?"
I turn to Noah.
"Is that true?"
"Léna, listen to me… it's not what you think."
"Then tell me what I should think!"
The wind whistles around us. Leaves swirl at our feet.
Noah steps forward, reaching out to me.
"Please, don't listen to him. Nathan just wants to destroy me."
"Or make you tell the truth," his brother snaps back.
The two of them face each other—mirror images of the same pain.
A tear burns behind my eyes.
"Clara… what really happened?"
Nathan answers first.
"He loved her so much it made him unstable. They argued that night. She wanted to leave. He begged her to stay. He got behind the wheel. He was driving too fast. And when everything crashed… he ran. I was the one who came back. I'm the one they saw."
I turn to Noah, trembling.
"Tell me he's lying."
Noah closes his eyes.
A long silence.
Then he whispers:
"I tried to catch up to her. She was crying. I lost control."
All the air escapes my lungs.
Nathan shakes his head.
"See? He's doing it again. He pulls people in, destroys them, then cries about it."
"Shut up!" Noah shouts, voice breaking.
He steps toward his brother. Nathan doesn't move.
I freeze between them, unable to choose where to look.
Two identical faces.
Two truths tearing each other apart.
Nathan finally sighs.
"You want to know why I came back? Because I got these pictures."
He holds out his phone to me.
On the screen: recent photos of me
leaving the salon, walking down the street, sitting at the café with Noah.
Taken from a distance.
I jump back.
"You were spying on me?"
"No," Noah says urgently. "I swear I wasn't."
Nathan looks at him.
"Then who, Noah?"
Silence follows—thick, icy.
Then Noah murmurs:
"Someone's been following us from the beginning."
I tremble. Everything spins.
The night seems to tighten around us, swallowing the line between truth and lies.
Nathan lowers his phone.
"I watched a girl die because of you. I won't watch you destroy another."
"You don't get to control my life," Noah retorts.
"If you care about her, stay away. Otherwise, the ending will be the same."
He gives me one last look—intense, almost sorrowful—then disappears into the dark alley, swallowed by the rain.
I stand frozen.
Noah approaches carefully.
"Léna… I don't want to lose you."
"You've already lost a part of me," I whisper.
I look at him, shaking.
"Just tell me one thing. Why me?"
He swallows hard.
"Because when I saw you… I thought I was seeing the light I destroyed once."
And his words beautiful as they are terrify me more than anything else.