LOGINEVE'S POV I stood in front of the mirror that morning, pulling my loose maternity top down over my belly for the third time. It was getting harder to hide how much I was showing now. The baby bump was round and firm, like a little basketball I carried everywhere. Three days after that kitchen breakdown with Damon, we were finally heading to this doctor’s appointment together. My hands shook a little as I brushed my hair. Part of me was excited, the bigger part was scared shitless. Damon had been quiet since that memory hit him. Sophia’s face in the kitchen, the pregnancy announcement, the mug crashing everywhere. He kept looking at me like I was a puzzle he couldn’t solve. I hated it, but I also understood. The doctor had warned me...no dumping everything on him at once. Let the memories come naturally. So I stayed patient, even when it felt like I was walking on eggshells in my own house. “You ready?” Damon called from the living room. “Yeah, coming,” I answered, grabbing my b
It happened three days after Sophia came over. I was in the kitchen fixing some coffee when it hit me hard. This time it wasn’t a headache. Nah, it was a full memory...super sharp, crazy vivid, and it hurt like hell. Sophia was standing right there in this same kitchen, rocking a blue dress, tears streaming down her face. “I’m pregnant, Damon. It’s yours.” The coffee mug just slipped right out of my hand and smashed on the floor. Little ceramic bits went flying everywhere. “Damon? What’s going on?” Eve yelled from the guest bedroom. I just stood there staring at the mess, my heart banging in my chest. Pregnant. Sophia had been pregnant with my kid. “I’m good,” I shouted back, but my voice sounded all shaky. “I just dropped something.” I got down on my knees to pick up the broken pieces, but my hands were trembling bad. The memory felt so real. I could see her crying, feel her shaking when I held her and told her we’d sort it all out. But something about it felt off. Eve popp
SOPHIA'S POV "You heard about the accident." "Of course I heard, the whole city heard. My son was in a coma." "How is he?" "Recovering, memory loss from the accident. He doesn't remember the past several months." "I know,I went to see him this morning." Catherine's voice went cold. "You did what?" "I went to check on him. To see if he was okay, but he doesn't remember me, Catherine. Doesn't remember us together of recent. He only remembers the wedding day when I left." "Good." I blinked. "What?" "I said good. You shouldn't have gone to see him, you shouldn't be contacting him at all." "But I thought...you wanted us together, you said Eve was wrong for him..." "I was wrong." Catherine's voice was firm, edged with something sharper than anger. "I was very, very wrong. And I will never forgive myself for it. I regret the day I allowed you back into my son's life, I regret every conversation where I encouraged him to choose you, where I told him Eve wasn't right for him. Tha
SOPHIA'S POV I sat in my car outside Damon's building for twenty minutes after he kicked me out. My hands were shaking on the steering wheel. That hadn't gone how I'd planned. Not even close. I'd expected confusion, maybe. Questions. The Damon I knew...the one before the accident... would have at least listened. Would have let me explain, he would have been conflicted about Eve and remembered what we'd had together. But this Damon... This Damon looked at me like I was a stranger, worse than a stranger. Like I was an unwelcome intruder in his life. He didn't remember. He didn't remember me coming back to New York, he didn't remember the months we'd spent together. He didn't remember choosing me, believing me, divorcing Eve for me.I pulled out my phone and called Amanda, my lawyer. "It's done?" she answered. "No, It's a disaster." "What happened?" "He doesn't remember me. I mean, he remembers me from before, from when we were engaged. But everything from the past year? Th
DAMON'S POV My head was killing me again. Not the normal ache from the surgery, this was different. Like someone was inside my skull with a crowbar, trying to pry memories loose that didn’t want to come out. I’d been sitting on the couch for the last hour, eyes closed, trying to force it. Trying to remember. Nothing. Just fragments and pieces that didn’t fit together. I saw Sophia’s face, clear as day. She was smiling at me, but it felt wrong. Then the image shifted and she was crying. Then she was yelling, then she was gone. I couldn’t tell if these were real memories or my brain making shit up. I pressed my fingers to my temples and tried harder. “Damon?” Eve’s voice pulled me out of it, she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, one hand on her belly, looking worried. “You okay? You’ve been sitting there like a statue for twenty minutes.” I opened my eyes. The room tilted for a second before settling. “Yeah. Just… trying to remember.” She walked over and sat on the
EVE'S POV I was still sitting on the couch when my phone buzzed. Jessica. Jessica: You home? I heard Sophia showed up. You okay? Me: Yeah. I’m home, Sophia came, tried to start shit with Damon, I kicked her out. I’m fine. She replied almost instantly. Jessica: I’m coming over, don’t argue. I’m already in the Uber. I didn’t argue. I needed someone to talk to who actually knew the full story. Damon was asleep in the master bedroom. The doctor had him on some new pain meds that knocked him out for a couple hours in the afternoon, which was good. He needed the rest. And I needed to breathe without him looking at me like I was the answer to everything. I got up, made myself a cup of ginger tea, and waited. Twenty minutes later the intercom buzzed. I let Jessica up. She walked in wearing jeans, a hoodie, and that worried best-friend face I’d seen too many times in the last year. She hugged me the second the door closed. “You look like hell,” she said. “Thanks. I feel like it too.
Three days.It had been three days of this new arrangement and I was losing my mind.Not in a bad way. In a "I can't stop thinking about him" way. In a "every time he looks at me I remember exactly what he looks like naked" way.We'd fallen into this routine. Work during the day. Pretend to be norm
The words came out before I could stop them.Everyone stopped eating and looked at me."I just mean..." I could feel my face getting hot again. "She's not here. Maybe we could talk about something else."My mother's smile went tight and thin. "Of course, darling. We're just making conversation.""I
Saturday morning I woke up to the smell of bacon. Which was weird because I didn't cook bacon. Didn't really cook anything beyond cereal and toast, honestly. I stumbled out of bed in my pajamas—ratty t-shirt and shorts that had seen better days—and followed the smell to the kitchen. Damon was at
Wednesday arrived and I wanted to die.Okay, not actually die. But maybe get hit by a car. Nothing fatal. Just enough to land me in the hospital for a few days so I could miss this dinner.My parents were coming at seven. Damon's parents were coming at seven. All of them. Together. In the penthous







