Chapter One: Ghosts Don’t Knock Twice

The knock came late.

Three quick knocks, a pause, then one more. Strange rhythm. Not random. It felt... familiar.

Lucas was in the kitchen, drying a mug. He just stood there, towel in hand, heart thudding. That knock  he hadn’t heard it in a long, long time. Years.

He didn’t move right away. Just listened. Rain tapped softly against the window. The kind of night where everything feels heavier.

Then he walked toward the door. Slowly. Floor creaked beneath his bare feet. Every step made his chest feel tighter.

Could’ve been anything, right? A neighbor. Someone lost. Delivery gone wrong.

He opened the door.

And froze.

Elias.

Alive. Standing there. Wet from the rain, coat clinging to him, eyes searching.

Lucas didn’t say anything. Couldn’t. His mind wasn’t catching up.

“Lucas,” Elias said, voice low. Careful.

Lucas stared. Soaked hair, thinner face, but it was him. Still him. The man he’d lost. The man they’d said was dead.

Plane crash. No survivors. No body. Just an empty grave and a lot of grief.

“This isn’t real,” Lucas whispered. “You died. I buried you.”

Elias shook his head, slow. “I don’t remember any of that. But they told me... you’re my husband.”

The words hit like a punch to the gut.

Lucas let out a weird laugh  bitter, sharp. “Are you hearing yourself?”

“I didn’t know who else to go to,” Elias said.

Lucas stepped out into the rain without thinking. Water soaked through his shirt in seconds. His hands were trembling. “You’ve been gone for three years. You show up with nothing? No call, no letter?”

“I’m not trying to hurt you.”

Lucas looked at him, jaw tight. “Bit late.”

Elias lowered his gaze. “I woke up in Zurich. Hospital. Doctors said I was in an accident. My passport had my name. My lawyers looked into it. They found you. Found... us.”

Lucas couldn’t even breathe for a second.

“You were alive,” he said, barely a whisper. “And you didn’t come home.”

“I didn’t know I had one,” Elias said, quiet.

Lucas backed up a step, grabbing the doorframe. “God, I can’t believe this.”

“I’m not here to fight.”

“Then why are you here?”

Elias took a breath. “My family trust. There's a clause. If I’m not married  or mentally stable by the end of the year, my brother gets everything.”

Lucas stared at him. “So this is about money.”

“It’s not,” Elias said. “It’s about control. I don’t trust him. I need help.”

Lucas shook his head. “You can’t just say ‘help’ and expect me to play along. You don’t even remember me.”

“I don’t,” Elias admitted. “But when I saw you just now… something hurt. In here.” He pressed his hand against his chest. “I don’t know why. But it did.”

Lucas looked at him. Those eyes were the same  but they didn’t know him anymore.

“I can’t do this,” Lucas said, almost a whisper.

“Just... think about it,” Elias said. Then he turned and walked off into the dark, disappearing like he was never there.

Lucas stood there for a while. Rain dripping from his hair, his shirt clinging to him. He couldn’t move.

Later, he sat on the bed in silence. Reached into his nightstand, pulled out an old photo  their wedding day. The two of them smiling like idiots. So happy.

Lucas stared at Elias’s face in the picture. “I waited for you,” he whispered.

A drop  maybe a tear, maybe just water landed on the photo. The ink bled.

Morning came, gray and slow.

Jesse walked in like always, no knock. Tossed a coffee at Lucas without saying anything.

“Saw your light on at 4 a.m.,” he said. “You didn’t sleep.”

Lucas didn’t answer.

Jesse sat beside him. “What’s going on?”

Lucas swallowed. “He’s back.”

Jesse blinked. “Who?”

“El... Elias.”

Jesse stared at him like he’d lost it. “Come on. Don’t say that.”

“I’m not joking,” Lucas said. “It’s him. Same face. Same voice. But no memory.”

Jesse leaned back. “Holy shit.”

“He wants me to pretend we’re still married,” Lucas said.

“For the trust?”

“Yeah.”

Jesse just stared. “That’s messed up.”

“I told him no,” Lucas said.

“Good.”

Lucas stared into his coffee. “But I think I’m gonna say yes.”

Jesse turned. “What?”

Lucas met his eyes, voice barely holding. “If there’s even a small chance I could get him back... I have to try.”

Jesse shook his head slowly. “Or he breaks your heart all over again.”

Lucas gave a sad smile. “It’s already broken.”