“Liv, didn’t you wonder why you kept bumping into Ethan? Didn’t you think it was just a little too coincidental? First in front of the hospital and then outside of the museum.”

A wave of anxiety washed over me and my mind raced, searching for a logical answer to Connor’s questions that wouldn’t hurt me.

Connor let out a crazed laugh. “I’ll let you in on another little secret, Liv.” There was a gleam of delight in his eyes. “I hired Ethan to get to know you, to get close to you.”

His words caused my whole world to crash before me. My heart refused to believe what I had just heard, but when I looked to Ethan for answers, it was written all over his face. What Connor had said was the truth.

“Why?” I managed to ask as my breathing became shallow and ragged.

“Because I needed you to trust him. I wanted to know if you really lost your memories when you woke up. I needed to make sure you weren’t just pretending that you didn’t know to protect yourself from me. So I hired him to get close to you, to get to know you, to get you to trust him.”

I shook my head, unwilling to accept this reality.

“Like I said, Liv, nothing just happens. You met Ethan because I wanted you to meet him. I wanted you to trust him.” He paused and shot Ethan a menacing look. “What I didn’t want was for you to leave me for him. What I didn’t want was for him to fall for you.”

“Don’t listen to him, Liv,” Ethan finally spoke up. He came over and helped me up from the floor. “Come on. I’ll explain everything. Please just come with me.”

Just then, behind Ethan, I saw Connor barreling forward with something in his hand. I screamed as Ethan turned to Connor, just in time for Connor to hit Ethan’s head with a large metal bookend.

I cried out when I saw Ethan stumble to the ground as blood oozed down from a gash on his forehead.

Connor turned to me. “Like I said, Liv. You’re not leaving me.”

“No, please! Connor, you don’t want to do this.” I backed away from him and stumbled out of the reading room.

He lunged at me and pushed me up against the railing that overlooked the front hallway.

“Please, Connor. This isn’t you.” I begged for my life, but I knew from the deranged look on his face that it was futile.

His hands found their way to my neck again and he pressed my body against the railing, bending me over the top. I gasped for air, struggling against the weight of his body. My hands desperately tried to pull his hands off me as my eyes looked down to the hard marble floor below.

Just when I thought I was about to pass out and fall over the railing, I heard Connor let out a grunt and I saw Ethan pull him off me and punch him square in the face. Connor doubled back but recovered quickly. Then they lunged at each other and struggled against the railing as they each tried to overpower the other. When they finally pushed themselves off each other, Connor threw a punch at Ethan, who stumbled back against the railing. Connor then charged at Ethan and swung his fist with brut force. But he missed. I watched in horror as the wooden railing gave way to the impact of Connor body, and as if in slow motion, Connor lost his balance and fell over the railing.

I screamed as I heard a loud thud as his body hit the hard floor below.

Paralyzed and overwhelmed with shock, I slid down to the floor and hugged my legs as I began to sob.

The next hour was a blur in my memory. Ethan had called the police, and when they showed up, they took our statements, took photos, and took the necklace and the bookend that hit Ethan into evidence.

When the police finally left, I felt numb as the shock of everything that happened and everything that I found out stayed fresh in my mind.

“Liv, are you okay?” Ethan asked. He had cleaned off the blood from his face, but I could still see the open gash on his forehead.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed as I recoiled from his touch.

He looked at me in concern and regret in his eyes. “Please let me explain. I promise you, Liv. I’m going to make this right.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “There’s nothing you can do that will make this right.”

"I'm so sorry, Liv.”

“All you can say is sorry?” I felt a rage grow inside. “Is that enough?”

He bowed his head in anguish. “I should have told you sooner. I should have told you everything.”

“It’s too late, Ethan.” I looked away from him, unable to allow the one man I felt so close to, the one man who I thought could be the one, see me cry at this moment.

“You must think I’m a fool,” I said under my breath. “Playing with my emotions and making me believe there was something real between us. But you were just controlling me like I was a puppet in this made up world you and Connor constructed.”

“No, it’s not like that. Please let me explain. It’s not what it looks like.”

I glared at him. “Well it looks like you knew Connor before we met that day outside the hospital. It looks like you didn’t just happen to be there by accident, but Connor told you to be there. It looks like Connor hired you to seduce me and get close to me to see how much I actually remembered. What part of that is ‘not what it looks like’?”

I seethed with rage inside as I processed Ethan’s betrayal.

“No, Connor didn’t plan everything that had happened between us. He only planned that one meeting at the hospital and the meeting outside the museum. After that first day we spent together, I knew you didn’t remember anything. So when I told him you didn’t remember, he told me to stop spending time with you. He didn’t want you to like me. But I couldn’t leave you alone. You meant too much to me. So I continued to seek you out, to make sure you were okay.”

He grabbed my hand against my resistance and pulled it close to his chest. “Liv, the feelings we have for each other, the feelings I have for you. They are real.”

Just then, I saw Anna’s car pull up to the house to pick me up.

I pulled my hand away and took one last look at Ethan.

“It doesn’t matter, Ethan. I can never trust you after this.”

On the verge of tears, I turned away and ran as fast as I could toward Anna’s car. I felt completely empty inside. How did everything change so quickly? I had been so happy yesterday with Ethan. I had thought we had something special. But I was wrong. It was all a lie. Everything about my life since I woke up two months ago had been a lie.

CHAPTER T WELVE

Three Weeks Later

I jumped when my phone rang. Anxiety prickled against my skin as I reached for it to see who it was. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Anna’s name appear on the caller ID.

“Hey, Anna.”

“Hi, roomie! How’s it going?” Her always-chipper voice caused me to smile.

“Not bad. I’m glad that it’s you that called.”

“Oh, are you still avoiding his calls?”

I didn’t need to ask her to know exactly who she was talking about. Ethan.

“Yeah. He won’t leave me alone. It might be time to file a restraining order or something.”

“Hmm. Maybe you should talk to him, Liv. Let him explain to you what happened.”

“But I know what happened. Connor told me he hired Ethan to get to know me. Ethan didn’t deny it at all. We met under false pretenses, and he used me and played with my emotions just like Connor had. How can I trust that anything he says is true?”

“You’re right, sweetie. That’s hard.”

“So what’s going on?” I asked, changing the subject.

“I was calling to see if you were home right now. I was going to swing in to drop some stuff off.”

There was something in her voice that gave me pause. “Yeah, I’m home. Is anything wrong?”

“Nothing.” There was a pause. “I just have to give you something.”