Page 13 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

He shakes his head. “We don’t know. You were hypothermic. I don’t know how long you’d been in the water, but I pulled you out and we got you into Asheville to the ER as quickly as we could.”

What?

That’s something I should remember.

How I got into the water.

Being swept downriver.

Killian’s pulling me out.

But there is nothing.

I glance up at the doctor. “Why can’t I remember?”

She offers me a soft smile. “The good news is, we did an MRI, and there doesn’t appear to be any damage to your brain, and your bloodwork has all come back normal. Given how you were found in the water and that gash on your head, you likely have a concussion, though. Your body shows that you were battered pretty badly on your way downriver. You’ve obviously suffered trauma, and with a traumatic injury, it’s not uncommon for some parts of the brain to shut down so it can focus on healing. The memories should return. Eventually. You just have to give it some time and give your body a chance to heal.”

Time to heal.

But apparently, a lot of time has passed.

An entire year just gone.

So much must have happened in that time.

We had so many plans?—

My gaze immediately drops to my left hand, where my engagement ring has sat on that all-important finger since Killian proposed, searching for the wedding band that would be with it if Killian and I had finally gotten married like we had planned last July.

A few cuts and scrapes mar the otherwise bare finger where it rests on top of the hospital blanket.

No wedding band.

Not even my engagement ring.

As empty as my memory of why it’s gone.

2

WILLOW

My stomach tenses along with every sore muscle and joint in my body. That pulsating agony pierces my temples as I try to remember anything.

Did it come off in the river?

Or…

Was it already gone?

I never took it off.

Not even when I was making candles.

It was a part of me as much as the man who gave it to me.

The harder I try to figure it out, the more I have to choke back the bile rising in my throat.

I wouldn’t have taken it off.