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I stare at the one person I thought I wouldn’t see again, the person whose betrayal cut the deepest after my assault.

Alexis Evans. My best friend.

She abandoned me after the darkest night of my life. She looked at me with revulsion when she found me naked and battered in the lounge. She told me she was quitting ballet.

I don’t understand. Nothing makes sense.

She stares at me, a quizzical look on her face as she cocks her head to the side.

“Lil’ Tay, is that you? What are you doing here with my brother?”

My mouth runs dry as I stare at her, unable to form words, unable to calm the icy kick of adrenaline sending my heart in a tailspin.

I see Charles slowly getting up, the worry clear in his beautiful blue eyes. Eyes I now see are identical to Alexis’s.

What on earth?

Alexis frowns. “I-I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Just then the door sharply opens behind me, and I see my brother, Ethan, rushing in, his dark brown hair windswept, his eyes wild as he scans the room before landing on Alexis.

“Oh fuck,” he mutters, rushing forward, ignoring all of us, and crushes Alexis into his arms. “You’re awake, my nova, you’re awake.” His voice chokes up at the end. “I knew you were going to wake up. I’ve never given up hope.”

A few seconds of bewildered silence pass by as I struggle to find my voice, to ask what the hell is going on. I see a similar confusion in Charles, who mouths something to Liam, who shakes his head and murmurs, “I don’t fucking know.”

Alexis stiffens, and she pushes Ethan back, her wide eyes scanning my brother’s face. “W-Who are you?”

“What?” Ethan staggers back. “Lexy, you know me. Don’t joke right now. Please, I’m going to have a heart attack. Please don’t joke with me.”

Alexis shakes her head and scurries to the edge of her bed, her eyes not leaving Ethan’s face. Clearly sensing their sister’s confusion, Liam and Charles gather around Alexis, as if protecting her from Ethan, who looks like he’s been slapped across the face.

“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” I step toward the group, my heart beating out of my chest, my eyes clearly taking in a scene my brain cannot understand. “How is my best friend, your sister?”

“Your best friend? The one who abandoned—” Charles begins, the color slowly draining from his face as he makes connections I still can’t see. “Fuck. That’s why she disappeared. Because your best friend is my sister. Holy shit.”

Alexis stares at me again, like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. Her gaze darts to my wrist and I glance at our friendship bangle. “Our bangle? I don’t remember. I don’t—” She shakes her head, like she’s trying to remember something, and she looks at her own wrist. “Where’s mine?”

“Fuck,” I hear Charles whisper.

My mind is still having trouble catching up as I turn my attention to him. He opens Alexis’s nightstand drawer and pulls out her bangle, similar to mine, but in a different pattern. A matching set.

He shakes his head, clearly still in shock. “I should’ve known. I always thought your bracelet looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

His words reverberate as logic finally turns back online. Alexis Evans dropped out of my life abruptly almost eight years ago. Charles’s sister sustained traumatic injuries in a car accident, leaving her in a coma almost eight years ago.

I never heard from Alexis again because she was here, in a coma, all along.

Looking at Alexis, my emotions still reeling, trying to understand what this means in the grander scheme of things, I ask, “Your last name isn’t Vaughn. It’s Evans. Why?”

Alexis swallows. “It’s our grandmother’s maiden name. I never use Vaughn in my everyday life. It’s too high profile. Why are you staring at me like this? Why do you look so different? Did I do something to hurt you, Lil’ Tay? I don’t get it.” She looks around the room, the blood leaving her face again. “You all look so different.”

A delirious chuckle threatens to rip from my throat. Did she do something to hurt me? That’s an understatement of the century. Even as I reel from the news that my former best friend is Charles’s younger sister, who was in an unfortunate coma until now, it doesn’t erase the fact she left me on the darkest night of my life.

But maybe there’s another reason for it.

A spark of hope flares up inside me. I replay her words in my mind.

Lil’ Tay. She hasn’t called me that since I was fourteen, and she was eighteen then. She treated me like a little sister until I grew older and we became best friends.

“You all look so different.”

My breath hitches and I slowly approach her, watching the furrow deepen between her brows. “How old are you, Alexis?”

I hear a sharp inhale. I don’t know if it’s from Ethan or someone else. A sinking feeling sweeps in as I watch Alexis looking at me in confusion. “Sixteen. I want to say sixteen, but that can’t be true, right? You guys look so much older.”

“Fuck,” I hear Charles mutter under his breath.

“So, you don’t know who I am, Lexy,” Ethan murmurs, his voice hoarse. He swallows. “You have no clue.”

A knock sounds at the door and a group of doctors with nurses and technicians walk in. The one in the front, an older man with salt-and-pepper hair, looks at Charles and says, “I’m Dr. Carlson from neurology, and these are my colleagues from critical care, respiratory, and physical medicine/rehabilitation departments. We’re here to assess your sister and to come up with the best plan of treatment for her. Can I ask you all to step outside and give us some space?” He motions to his colleagues—there are at least ten of them crowding the room.

“Of course,” Charles murmurs and takes my hand. “Anything you need, doctor, just let me know. Spare no expenses.”

Liam pushes Ethan toward the exit. My brother looks like he wants to stay behind. Liam mutters, “What’s going on, dude? You’re acting strange.”

Ethan stills and lets out a half-chuckle that anyone with eyes can see is fake. “Just shocked.” His nostrils flare. “Happy for you guys though.”

“Lil’ Tay!”

I stop, turning toward Alexis again.

Her forehead is pinched, and she’s clutching her head like she has a migraine. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I need to tell you I have proof.” She shakes her head and winces. “I don’t know what that means. But I need to tell you that. A hiding place. I’m not making any sense.”

“Ms. Vaughn, don’t try too hard right now. Let us check your vitals first, okay?” One of the doctors gives me a sharp glance and shakes his head, as if to tell us to leave the room faster.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, a headache beginning to form at the base of my neck, and we filter into the hallway.

Proof? Hiding place? What?

“Thanks for coming, man. I knew you were worried about her, so I wanted you to see her in person. But it looks like her memory is jacked up and the docs are going to take a while in there with her. Go back to work. I’ll call you if anything changes.” Liam clasps Ethan’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

Ethan nods, his eyes still looking gutted and lost. “Right.” His lips curve up in a fake smile. He glances at me. “See you at the family dinner this weekend.”

A heaviness sits on his frame as he leaves us, and I make a note to ask him about it later.

Liam shrugs on his leather jacket and shifts on his feet. Charles clears his throat. The brothers look awkward as fuck standing here. Rolling my eyes, I push them both toward a quiet seating area.

“You two need to talk. I’m tired of you being at odds with each other and I don’t even know Liam that long. Your sister is in there and she needs you both. She has a long road to recovery in front of her. Get your shit together.”

Charles smirks and shakes his head in amusement. He pulls me to him. “You’re the smart one.”

“No shit.” I smile into his chest. I whisper, “Liam still loves you. I can tell. Just talk to him, be vulnerable. You guys will be okay. I’m going to head out. I need to do something.”

Alexis’s words sift through my mind like a riddle. A riddle I feel in my gut I have the answer to, and I know I won’t rest until I figure it out.

“I love you,” he murmurs before pulling apart. He gazes into my eyes. “You okay?”

I grin. “I’m not sure ‘okay’ is the right word for what I’m feeling right now. I’m confused as shit, but I know the answers will come. Don’t worry about me. I’ll call you later.”

He nods, warmth teeming in his eyes.

I glance at Liam, who’s sprawled in a chair, nervously bouncing his feet on the floor.

I smile inwardly as I walk toward the elevators. The brothers will be all right.

In the meantime, I have a riddle to solve.