Page 10

TREY

There’s evidence of him everywhere. He’s got clothes in the closet. Jackets hanging up behind the door. Colognes on the nightstand. A pair of his worn socks lying on the floor. I haven’t gotten a closer look at the rest of Arella’s apartment yet, but I can only imagine there’s more of him around.

The Keepers sure went through a lot of effort to plant Caleb into Arella’s life: altering her memories, moving him in, giving them a shitload of fake memories together.

It was a good effort, but in the end, I was right.

I had known my girl could fight it. I had known she could overcome the scrub.

Her immunity probably played a huge part in that, but I’m going to give most of the credit to her inner strength—one of the first things about her I fell in love with.

Now that she’s come back to me, I’m gonna make sure she stays. Fuck the Keepers, and fuck their stupid laws. If this isn’t proof that they can’t keep my soul mate away from me, I dunno what is.

Whenever Arella wakes up, we’ll figure out a plan together. We’ll run away to somewhere the zovernment can’t find us. We’ll start a family, and we’ll grow old together. Whatever Arella wants, she’ll get. All I want, all I need, is to be with her. As long as I’ve got that, I’ll?—

“She knows you,” Caleb says, cutting into my thoughts. He’s stationed on a chair in the corner, where he has been since Arella fell asleep. Like a fucking creep, he’s been watching me hold her for the last twenty minutes. No matter what I said, he refused to leave. “How does she know you?”

“Could you speak quieter?” I say in a low whisper. “I don’t want you to wake her.”

The pastel-shirt-wearing motherfucker has the nerve to cross his arms over his chest and shoot daggers at me with his eyes. “Answer my question, asshole. How does she know you?”

“Speak quieter, asshole, or I’ll throat-punch you so hard, you’ll never be able to speak again.”

In a lower tone this time, he says slowly, “How . . . does . . . she . . . know you?”

“We met on the side of a highway.”

“That’s how she and I met.” The dude narrows his gaze at me. “How is it possible that we both met her the same unique way?”

Maybe because you only met her after the goddamn Keepers placed you here. I don’t bother coming up with an answer for him because I don’t care enough. The only thing I care about is the woman in my arms.

After a long silence, Caleb speaks again. “The only reason I haven’t torn you away from my girl is because she specifically asked you to stay. If she hadn’t, I would have called the cops by now.”

“Call her your girl again and I’ll set you on fire.” The guy probably thinks that’s an empty threat, but my palms are already sparking up.

He scoffs. “You’re kinda possessive of her for a man she didn’t remember an hour ago.”

“She remembers me now, so you can go fuck off.” Preferably over a cliff. The tallest damn cliff he can find.

“How did she forget you?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Don’t you have something better to do? Like, I dunno, fall into a pool of sharks?”

“Actually, sharks aren’t as violent as people think. More people are killed by cows every year than sharks.”

“That’s great. Since you’re such a know-it-all, why don’t you go on Jeopardy! ? I’m sure they’d love to feature you and your pastel-as-fuck pink shirt.”

He shrugs with a grin I want to slap off his ugly face. “I’m just sayin’, dude. If you’re going to wish death upon me, you should wish for cows over sharks.”

“Seriously, could you just fuck off?” And take all your shit in Arella’s apartment with you.

It takes him a moment to finally stand. “Fine. I’m going to go finish the lunch that my girlfriend cooked for me, but the second she wakes up, I’m comin’ right back.”

As he exits the room, I imagine chucking a big-ass fireball at the back of his head. If I wouldn’t get imprisoned for exposure, I probably would.

Finally, for the first time since we were in my parents’ safe house, I’m holding my girl—alone.

I relish how the sounds of her steady breaths calm me and the way she looks so innocently beautiful when she’s asleep.

She’s an angel who was made specially for me, and she fits in my arms like we’re two perfect pieces of a puzzle.

Little does Caleb know, our puzzle doesn’t have room for a third piece.

Barely five minutes pass before Arella stirs. I remain still in case she’s just fidgeting a little, but she moves some more, then her eyes flutter open. When she tilts her head back to look at me, my heart sinks to my stomach.

The recognition is gone.

A high-pitched scream fills the room as Arella launches herself off the bed. “Get away from me!”

My world stops turning.

Caleb dashes through the open door, then my gut wrenches as my girl dives straight into his arms.

She points a shaky finger at me. “Caleb! He—the crazy guy—he’s in our bed.”

Our bed. That one little word jabs me in the gut. My breath hitches as Caleb protectively snakes his arm around my entire reason for existing.

“Calm down, muffin. Everything’s okay.”

Muffin? What the fuck?

“It’s not okay!” Arella shouts. “The crazy guy is in our bed !”

I’d be fine going the rest of my life without ever hearing her say “our bed” in reference to Caleb ever again. Slowly, I slide off the mattress with my hands up in surrender. My movements only make Arella curl into this other guy more.

All the color that lit up my world a minute ago quickly fades. That pitch-black fog of depressive darkness floats back into me, clouding my vision.

Caleb cups her face the way I did earlier, forcing her attention to him. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“We were having lunch,” Arella says. “Then I saw a big spider.”

“What else?”

Her eyes cast down as she thinks. “Um, I think I passed out.”

“You did, but you’re okay now.” Caleb pulls her closer to him. My body stiffens as she softens into his chest. “I’ve got you, muffin.”

Seeing her in his arms like that is like watching a horror movie: It’s terrifying, but I can’t look away.

Caleb shoots me a glare. “Get out.” He keeps his arms wrapped tightly around my girl as she turns her head to look at me. Still no recognition.

Swallowing hard, I keep my hands up in surrender as my eyes lock with hers. In the calmest voice I can manage, I say, “You just remembered me.”

Her eyebrows dip. “What?”

“Just now, before you fell asleep, you remembered me.”

“What are you talking about?”

I flick my gaze up to Caleb. “Tell her.”

The dude blinks at me in silence, and it’s all I need to know he’s not gonna back me up. Why would he? To him, I’m the guy who’s trying to steal his girl.

“Come on, man,” I plead, “tell her the truth.”

“Get out,” he says.

He’s a lost cause, but Arella isn’t. That recognition earlier is proof that every moment we’ve ever shared together is still inside her somewhere. Maybe those memories are buried deep—way, way deep—but she can access them. There’s hope. I can get through to her. I just have to figure out how.

“Arella, twenty minutes ago, you?—”

“My name is Ari!” she shouts so loudly, I drop my hands and jerk back a step. I trip over my shoes and catch myself on her nightstand. “If you ever call me Arella again, I’m going to file a restraining order against you. Actually, I’m going to do that regardless. I told you to stop stalking me.”

“I’m not stalking you. I’m telling the truth. Just now, you remem?—”

“No! I don’t want to hear you feed me a bunch of lies. Just leave, and stay away from me!”

My breaths come out shallow as all the hope I just had fades away. The disgusted look she’s giving me is confirmation that no matter what I say, no matter what I do, she’s not coming back to me.

She doesn’t remember me.

End of story.

She doesn’t remember the nights we spent cuddled in my bed, talking about her dream bakery until two in the morning.

She doesn’t remember taking me to her thinking spot under that giant oak tree—the place where we made love for the first time.

She doesn’t remember the battles we fought together to stay alive. She doesn’t remember any of it.

Without her memories, this woman standing in front of me isn’t Arella.

Suddenly, it hits me that she’s been right this whole time: Her name is Ari, because Arella is gone.

Arella died the moment that Scrubber altered her memories to remove me.

Unless she can remember us falling in love and all the hell we went through together, this woman in front of me is just a woman who looks like the woman I love.

The realization hits me like a baseball bat to the face.

First my parents, then my Deaf mentee kid Elliott, my unborn baby, my dad, and now her.

This is my fate, to lose anyone who has ever meant anything to me.

What did I do to deserve this curse? I would never wish this torture upon anyone.

Not even Aunt Jodi, who I hate with every piece of my broken soul.

Who’s next? Liz? The rest of my bandmates?

My dog? I don’t even have a dog, but if I did, I’m sure it wouldn’t be safe either.

Tears collect on the surface of my eyes. I need to get outta here before they drip down.

I stare blankly at my shoes as I shove my feet into them. My breaths come out sharp as I pluck my leather jacket off the floor and slip my arms through it. I feel Ari’s and Caleb’s gazes on me as I force my feet to shuffle around the bed.

As I pass them, I keep my eyes glued to the carpet. I can’t look at them. I shouldn’t, anyway. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me. To them, I’m just a stranger in their home. I don’t belong here.

I slam their apartment door shut behind me as I drag my feet outside. I’m about to reach my bike when I realize my helmet is missing. I twist on my heel and find it in the grass, exactly where I chucked it. My vision blurs with wetness as I bend to pick it up.