Page 45 of The Echo of Forever

“It’s… better today.”

He tipped his head as if to say he didn’t quite believe me. There was always a dull ache dancing at the surface, but it was tolerable today.

Still, he somehow knew.

“Almost eleven months ago, you went on a job that was only meant to take two days max.”

I nodded, waiting for him to go on, but he just stared like it pained him to say whatever needed to be said. My body wanted to go to him, but my mind wouldn’t let me do it.

“And?”

He started in my direction.

“And, I’m feeling a way cause you promised to come back to me, but didn’t.”

I blinked and squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to put the pieces together.

What the fuck happened to me?

“We knew each other before?”

Our eyes met, and I swear his were begging me to understand.

He loved me.

He loves me.

“I forgot you?” I asked, the sudden pressure behind my eyes giving me pause.

I pressed my palm into my temple and whimpered.

“Forever, baby—” was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

CHAPTER 12

ECHO

Forever kept breaking my heart.

“Her vitals are normal, but I suggest bringing her by for a full checkup, Demetrius,” Doctor Holland said after I followed her out into the hall. “Especially since…” She shook her head and turned. “If you can convince her to come to the compound, we can figure out if there’s something wrong or if it’s just amnesia from trauma.”

“Physical trauma?”

She nodded.

“Maybe to the head, or she could be dissociating. I can’t be sure.”

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe the frustration away, but no such luck.

“My father sends his love,” she said before walking away. “If you need me, call the emergency line.”

Forever was standing when I entered again. She’d been against me calling Alyssa at all, but I couldn’t sit back after she passed out in my arms and do nothing.

The Hollands were a family of doctors who rejected but still found a way to stay afloat in a city where physicians from the Collective were in the highest demand.

For me, any doctor who’d break the Hippocratic oath couldn’t be trusted.

“Maybe I should go,” Forever said, looking as if she wanted to be anywhere but here. “This is too much.”