My chest got so tight it felt like it was on the brink of splintering.
The next series was more selfies of the two of us. I didn’t know where they had been taken, but it was all too clear we were in love. Had it not been for Bowen’s lack of a beard, I would have sworn they’d been taken just yesterday.
With a boulder in my throat, I continued to scroll, trying to match memories to the images on the screen—but there was nothing to be found inside my head. At some point, the mood of the photos changed. My smile had dimmed, and dark circles hung under my eyes. Bowen looked equally as tired and disheveled. But we were together in every single fucking photo. In love but miles apart.
I slapped a hand over my mouth when I reached a series of me in a hospital bed, my wrists bandaged, Bowen down on one knee with a ring box open in his hand. I couldn’t breathe as I clicked to the next image.
We’d been engaged?
I’d been engaged?
Apparently, I’d said yes, because in the following photos, his eyes were red, tears streamed down my cheeks, and a diamond sat proudly on my ring finger.
After that, the images got happy again. I’d definitely lost weight, but I looked healthy. And there was a light in Bowen’s gorgeous eyes again.
I gasped when I realized the next photo wasn’t a still image at all but rather a video that started playing automatically. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end when I saw myself sitting tucked into the corner of his couch, a glass of wine in my hand as a group of voices sang “Happy Birthday.” Mark was there. My dad too. As if on cue, the video panned the room, and Aaron was standing in the corner, a smile on his face, but I knew that man all too well to confuse it for anything other than a mask.
Bowen came walking into the room with a tiny black puppy cradled in his arms. It was like an out-of-body experience watching myself giggle as he dropped to a knee in front of me and handed me the squirming ball of fur.
It was Sugar.
Sally’s dog.
He’d given me Sally’s dog.
The truth felt like a bullet as it landed squarely in my chest.
Oh my God. I was Sally.
A vortex of emotions consumed me all at once. I couldn’t think or process the reality of what I was seeing. My whole body began to tremble. My mind frantically tried to come up with excuses for how none of this was real, but my heart screamed otherwise.
How had this happened?
Why had this happened?
If he’d known me before… If we’d had this grand love that was so clear in so many pictures… Why all the lies?
And not just from Bowen.
But Mark.
And Aaron too.
Worst of all, my own fucking father.
I’d introduced Bowen to all of them, and none of them had said one single word. They’d been to his house, yet they’d acted as if he were a stranger.
The sharp knife of betrayal sliced me to the bone.
After the crash and losing my memory, I was vulnerable and had to rely on my friends and family to fill me in on the pieces of my life that were no longer there.
I’d trusted them.
Depended on them.
And because I’d trusted how much they loved me, I’d never once doubted them.
Now, my entire fucking life was a lie.
Sweat broke across my forehead as I suddenly felt like I was being suffocated by deception. A part of me wanted to go wake up Bowen and demand answers, but how would I ever know if it was the truth or not? Every single word out of his mouth so far had been a lie.
The day at the courthouse. There was no fucking way he hadn’t recognized me.
The bullshit stories about him losing his fiancée.
The acting and pretending.
All the fucking emotional manipulation.
Jesus. Who was this man? And why had everyone who supposedly loved me just sat back and let it happen?
Bile crawled up the back of my throat as panic built inside me. Nothing made sense, and there wasn’t even anyone I could turn to for answers—honest answers.
My whole life had become a charade, and the worst part was I had no fucking clue why.
But there was one thing I was sure of. I wasn’t about to stick around and see what else they had in store for me.
I left the computer open.
My phone on the counter.
And my entire fucking heart at the door.
Bowen
The sun was bright in my room as Sugar began making laps up and down my chest. I pried one eye open and extended my arm across the bed. Remi’s side was cold. A quick glance at my phone told me it wasn’t even eight yet.
Shit. Why is she up so early?
After the night we’d had, she should have still been curled against me, fast asleep.
Had she even come to bed? Note to self: Antihistamines make me narcoleptic. I barely remembered getting home before I’d fallen asleep again.
After a long stretch, I sat up and ran a physical inventory to see how I felt after the chaos of the night before. My head was pounding, but that was probably, hopefully, just from sleeping so hard. Nothing a hot shower couldn’t remedy.
One side of my mouth twisted into a smile. That sounded like a job for Nurse Grey. If I recalled correctly, she’d never followed through on that sponge bath she’d promised me. After all, I didn’t want her to get behind on her installment plan.
“Babe!” I called out.
Sugar dove off the mattress as I stood up. He went straight to harass Clyde, who was still sleeping on his bed in the corner, while I set out to find my girl.
“Remi!” I almost tripped over a bag of trash as I exited my room.
Ah, yes. The dogs’ reign of terror while loose in the house. That damn amazing, wonderful woman had clearly not listened when I’d told her to leave the mess until the morning. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Remi was stubborn, and if she got it in her head to help me, nothing would stop her.
The house was quiet, but her phone was on the counter, so she couldn’t have gone far. Letting the dogs out, I searched the back porch, hoping she was enjoying a cup of coffee out there on the swinging bed. The shower could wait if she was. Some fresh air while curled up next to my beautiful woman would always win in my book.
Slightly disappointed when she wasn’t outside, I backtracked down the hall, glancing in the empty guest room as I passed. I stopped at the office, and while she wasn’t there either, my laptop was open. She must have been up early, doing some work. If I were a betting man, I’d have placed money that she’d run out to help a client—superhero realtor style. It wouldn’t have been the first time she’d left her phone behind and given me a heart attack. Silently scolding myself for always overreacting, I walked over to shut the computer down.
With one swipe across the trackpad, my whole fucking life came crashing down all over again.
The breath in my lungs turned to poison as the ground shook beneath my feet. Or maybe that was just the rattle of my heart slamming against my rib cage.
I never dreamed that an image of her smiling face would be my worst nightmare. But as the paused video appeared on the screen, knowing there was no possible way for it to be there unless she’d found it, that was exactly what it became.
She knew.
She knew.
Fuck. She knew.
For a beat, my web of lies cocooned me, tight and suffocating, rendering me unable to move. A surge of adrenaline tore me free.