The VIP hospital suite smelled of antiseptic and lilies. Sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting striped shadows across the bed.
Eve groaned. The sound was dry and cracked.
Silas jumped up from the armchair where he had been dozing. "Eve? You're awake!"
Eve blinked. Her head felt like it had been split open with an axe. She reached up, her fingers brushing against thick bandages wrapped around her forehead.
"Silas?" Her voice was weak. "Where...?"
"Hospital," Silas said, grabbing her hand. "You were in a car accident. You scared the hell out of us." He glanced at his phone, where a dozen frantic messages from their PR team were waiting. The board meeting had been postponed, citing a 'family emergency,' but the market was already spooked.
Eve frowned, trying to access her memory. It was a blank slate. Just white noise. "Accident?"
"Yeah. You and... well, look." Silas picked up his tablet. He hesitated, then decided she needed to know. "You went viral last night."
He played the video.
Eve watched the screen. She saw herself, disheveled and crying, clinging to a man in a dark suit. She heard her own voice screaming, I love you so much! Don't leave me!
She watched the man pick her up. She watched him shield her face from the cameras.
Something clicked in her brain. The synapses, firing across the damaged pathways, sought a logical narrative to explain the emotion she was seeing. Her brain, protecting her from the trauma of Andre's betrayal, completely erased him. It paved over the hole with the only available data: the man in the video.
A smile, soft and dreamy, spread across Eve's face.
"He saved me," she whispered.
Silas winced. "Uh, sort of. He was actually trying to get you out of there because you were making a scene."
"No," Eve shook her head. "Look at how he holds me. He loves me."
Silas froze. "Eve. That's Charls Wiley. You hate him. He's your nemesis."
Eve looked at her brother like he was speaking a foreign language. "Nemesis? Don't be silly, Silas. That's Charls. My fiancé."
Silas dropped the tablet. It clattered onto the floor. "What the f...?"
Eve struggled to sit up, wincing at the pain. "We've been keeping it a secret. You know, because of the merger. Because of Mother. But... I guess the secret is out now."
Her brain was working fast, confabulating, building a bridge over the abyss of her memory loss. It made perfect sense. The intense feelings, the dream, the man in the video. It was love. It had to be.
"Nurse!" Silas yelled, hitting the call button. "Doctor!"
"Is he here?" Eve asked, her eyes darting to the door. "I want to see him. I need to tell him I'm sorry for the fight."
"There was no fight!" Silas argued, panicking. "There is no relationship! Eve, you are hallucinating!"
"Shh," Eve put a finger to her lips. "You just don't know about it. It was very private."
The door opened. But it wasn't the nurse.
It was Charls.
He had his arm in a black sling. He had come to check on the legal situation, to make sure the Franks weren't planning to sue him for the crash.
He stopped in the doorway, seeing Eve awake.
"You're up," he said, his voice cool and detached.
Eve's face lit up like a Christmas tree. The sheer wattage of her smile took Charls aback. He had never seen her look at him like that. Usually, she looked at him like she wanted to stab him with a pen.
"Charls," she breathed. She held out her hands. "Darling, you're hurt."
Charls looked behind him, assuming she was talking to someone else. There was no one there.
"Excuse me?" Charls asked.
"Your arm," Eve said, her eyes filling with tears. "Did you get hurt protecting me? Oh, I'm so sorry. I love you so much."
Charls stood there, stunned into silence. He looked at Silas.
Silas mouthed, She thinks you're engaged.
Charls felt the floor drop out from under him. This was a nightmare. This was worse than the crash.
"Eve," Charls started, stepping forward to correct her. "I think you hit your head harder than-"
"Don't be mad," Eve pleaded, her lower lip trembling. "I know I messed up. But I remember how you held me. Please, come here."
She looked so fragile. The bandages, the bruises, the IV drip. And that look... it was pure, unfiltered affection.
Charls closed his mouth. He didn't know why, but he couldn't bring himself to shatter her reality right there. Not when she looked like she might break into a million pieces.
