Chapter -1

Adrian had never thought a situation like this would come in his life. Where he’d be vulnerable and on his knees—for a woman. Begging was all he had been doing for the past few days.

Kneeling in front of the bed she was lying on, he clasped her bandaged hands between his and prayed repeatedly. “Please god…please god…save her.” The pain and suffering in his voice even made the nurses around him pity him, but the god above was showing no sign of redemption for him.

He knew he did not deserve this, he did not deserve her, but the fast pacing of his heart stated otherwise. The constant ringing of her screams in his head bleeding his ears, the look of fear in her eyes tearing him every second he closes his eyes. Even unconscious, she was haunting him.

It had been two weeks already. Yet no sign of her regaining consciousness. Adrian didn't blame her though. Considering the state in which he initially found her, he didn't even expect her to make it alive. It was a miracle she made it alive till he brought her to the private hospital. Gladly with proper treatment, she was no longer in a fatal condition.

Adrian did not want to remember the day he found her.

Bloodied and barely recognisable amidst the darkness, torn and bloodied clothes shattered dignity, and wounds on her once pristine skin.

He hated how he never saw the warning signs earlier. The pain behind her smile, he held her small hands daily but never once noticed the wounds below the long sleeves of her dark dresses, her words but never tried to hear the meaning behind them. He hated how he always slept with her on the same bed but never saw the scars, or simply never cared. He saw her every day but never saw her at all.

He regretted that. Every fucking second and every single time he brushed her words.

‘I…I need to talk to you.’

Adrian closed his eyes as tears rushed down his cheeks. Only if he listened to her that day. He hated himself for leaving her all alone that night, completely ignoring her pleas as she ran behind him barefoot. Five minutes, four missed calls, three words, two seconds and one last word.

‘Sorry.’

The doctors were all in a rush and panic as soon as he brought her to the hospital. They rushed her to the emergency room, saying something like it would be hard to save the girl. She had lost too much blood and she didn't seem in the best condition either. Adrian didn't know what he was expecting but he hoped she would make it alive. It was a gut feeling. An instinct that was telling him that he needed to save her at any cost.

****

Adrian waited for another week. It has been three weeks now since he found Amara and admitted her to the hospital. But still no sign of her waking up. The doctors haven't said much about her condition. They were always walking on eggshells around him, afraid that a single wrong move of them might cost them their lives. They were not fools to not realize by now what type of person he was within this span of three weeks.

Everything about him screamed danger. Starting from his piercings to tattoos to his shiny dark branded clothes.

Adrian knew he looked intimidating and he was indeed intimidating when the situation called for it but currently at the hospital he was doing nothing. Yet the doctors were afraid of him. He didn't know why. He simply visited Amara every day and stayed with her for hours and hours till he would get hundreds of missed calls from his mother, telling him to get back. Only then would he finally leave, though reluctantly.

Something about Amara didn't let him leave her alone. He wanted to be around her all the time. Stay close to her. Protect her. He had no idea how he grew to be so fond and protective of someone so fast and easily, even though she was just his arranged wife whom he hadn't even talked to more than once. But he didn't feel disturbed by this feeling.

He was indeed growing immensely protective of her that seemed who seemed to have hundreds of secrets within her. But Adrian didn't mind. He would allow himself to follow his heart and do everything in his power to redeem himself.

As usual, he was sitting on the stool in front of her bed, staring blankly ahead of himself as he was in deep thought. Then suddenly he noticed a movement. Her finger was moving.

Adrian immediately sat up straight and called the doctor, telling him that the patient seemed to have regained consciousness. Both he and the doctor rushed inside again. What greeted them inside left them both surprised and alert.

There she was. Eyes open and curiously looking around the room, though with some difficulty. There were not many wires attached to her body right then unlike how it was when she was first admitted.

Amara noticed Adrian and stared at him, blinking rapidly, not yet getting used to the bright light all around.

He walked near her, his heart pounding loudly. His keen eyes slowly plastered on her face, he instantly regretted everything. With a lump in his throat, he helped her to sit up first, knowing she had been lying on her back for too long. It might help her to relax.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked softly despite the guilt in his voice.

Amara didn't reply for a moment, still looking at him in a way that made Adrian feel as though he was being analysed, "I'm.... fine." She finally replied before adding, "Who are you?"

Adrian did not expect this question from her. He confusedly looked at the doctor who seemed as stunned. "I'm Adrian de Luca. Your husband."

Amara frowned before looking around. “Where am I?”

Did she not remember what happened to her? He thought she knew. He was waiting for her to wake up and tell him what happened. But her clueless expression said otherwise. She seemed genuinely lost and somewhat afraid about this situation as she nervously glanced around and waited for him to give her an explanation.

Adrian gave her a reassuring smile, holding her hand in his palm, "I'll explain everything to you later. For now, why don't you take some rest? You just woke up, and I wanted you to get adjusted first. I'll be back in a minute."

He waited for her to give him a reply. She nodded in affirmation, somewhat hesitantly. But let go of his hand. Adrian smiled again at her before glancing at the doctor who was standing by the side. His expression immediately hardened as soon as his eyes laid on the doctor. He motioned for the old man to follow him outside.

Closing the door to your room, he inquired, not wasting a second, "What is wrong with her?"

The doctor took a deep breath, saying, "Mr. Luca, there are a few things that I need to tell you about the patient. I didn't tell you before because we were waiting for Mrs Luca to wake up first, since it's kind of related to her medical report."

The doctor paused before motioning for one of the nurses to bring him a report. Adrian patiently waited as the nurse brought a blue-coloured file and handed it to the doctor. The said doctor opened a page and continued, "I'll be frank about this report to you, Mr Luca. The patient that you brought here was not in the best condition when you first brought her. You know that. Not only she was deeply wounded but she seemed to also have signs of past sexual abuse on her body. The most recent signs told that she was even abused just one day before the day you brought her here."

Adrian momentarily froze on his spot. Sexual abuse? Rape? He couldn't believe it in his ears. He clenched his fist. “What are you saying?”

"You’re her husband, I thought you knew—"

“I never slept with her!” Adrian growled grabbing the doctor by his collar and slamming him against the wall. “Are you fucking with me? Cause if you’re, I’ll kill you!”

The poor doctor looked wide-eyed and terrified as he shook his head. “I-Why would I lie?! You can see for yourself!” He panicked as Adrian let go of him.

His hands shook as he ran them through his head taking a step back. In his house? Under his roof? Did someone assault his wife? Adrian blamed himself. He should’ve been more cautious. Fuck!

“And…And I guess she has an amnesia.” Adrian let out a shaky breath. Refusing to believe anything. She couldn’t be…the lump in his throat expanded to his chest as he struggled to breathe.

The doctor swallowed hard before flipping the pages of the report and opening another page, "It's a complicated case, Mr Luca. Since she had concussions, we just had no idea how severe it could be. Now that she woke up, it makes sense why she acted so calm. This concussion must've led her to forget some memories from her past."

The doctor explained. Adrian listened to him with a heavy heart, trying to make sense of things he was hearing, "Judging by her reaction from a few minutes ago, I can tell she doesn't remember the people in her life anymore who caused her this pain. If she remembered them, she would have either screamed or at least had a panic attack as soon as she woke up. It happens for most of the victims like her. But it didn't happen in case of her. She's acting calm after waking up since she doesn't remember those painful events anymore."

Adrian licked his dry lips head lowered, "Even if it's retrograde amnesia, older memories take longer to lose. There's no way she just woke up not knowing. She must at least remember the people from her past, right?"

The doctor shook his head, heaving a deep sigh, "It's probably dissociative amnesia, Mr Luca. It happens when your brain rejects something stressful or harmful to you. Kind of like a defence mechanism. So something must've happened to her that hurt her more than in a physical way, and now she will be unable to recognize the people who did this to her. So it depends on whom she will remember from her past and whom she will not.

"If at some point, she ever comes across those people who caused her this pain, she might not recognize them, but deep inside her brain, there's a part of her that will know actually who they were, but then will decide to block them out. As I said, it's kind of like a defence mechanism for patients like her to protect themselves from those hurtful memories."

Adrian kept looking down for a few seconds before looking up and looking at Amara through the glass window of the room. She was sitting there patiently, for him. She didn't even move, just looking around curiously. Adrian didn't know how to feel looking at her. He couldn't believe a girl so young had already gone through so much.

"So when will she recover? I mean is there any possibility for her amnesia to go away?"

"Well, it might not be temporary. The head trauma itself was pretty damaging. I don't know. There's a lot of factors and amnesia isn't something that's guaranteed to go away so fast."

Adrian blanched. It was a lot to take in. He didn't know where to start thinking and where to end. Just last month she was his wife, and now she was his nothing. A stranger. Wasn’t this what he always wanted? For her to forget him? So that he could divorce her? Who knew he’d feel his morals bending for a woman his parents forced him to marry?

"So she's pretty much like a blank canvas now?" He asked.

The doctor adjusted his glasses nervously, closing the file, "As I said, it depends."

Adrian felt like he was stuck in a loophole. Not able to think anymore, he pulled out his phone and dialled a number. His eyes focused on the woman sitting on the bed looking like a clueless child. The nurses tended to her, but with each glance, Adrian felt his heart ripping out.

When the phone rang six times, the other side finally picked up. “Hello.” The gruff, deep voice muttered. Adrian never thought there would come a day when he’d have to call HIM.

Taking a deep breath, he set his ego aside and said. “Rhys.”

The other line went silent for a second before he heard Rhys chuckling. There was the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, and Adrian could already imagine him grinning ear to ear. “For what do I owe this pleasure, dear brother?”

“I need a favour.”

“Of course you do,” his arrogant words made Adrian suck in a deep breath. “What do you need now? Money? Drugs?”

“A place to stay.” He said even though his chest tightened at the realisation of what he was doing. “There’s a situation. I’ll explain later, but for a few months I need you to…” Adrian swallowed hard keeping his voice even. “I need you to keep Amara safe.”

Adrian sensed a long pause on the other side. He knew what was coming yet he remained unfazed and waited patiently. Rhys was his last resort.

When Rhys finally spoke, his voice was an octave deeper, a chilling sensation coming from the phone pressed against Adrian’s ear. “What happened to her?”

Adrian sighed his eyes once again moving to Amara. “First promise me you will help her.”