CHAPTER TWO

Aurora (18 months later)

When I opened my eyes, everything felt… wrong.

The world felt slow and heavy like I had been asleep for too long. A dull headache throbbed behind my eyes as I blinked, trying to focus.

The ceiling above me was unfamiliar, white and just too bright.

Beep… beep… beep…The sound was sharp and annoying.

It filled the room like it was mocking me, interrupted by a soft whimper.

I turned my head slightly in the direction of the sound and came face to face with the sight of a man standing by the side of the room, holding a small child wrapped in soft cloth.

He was feeding the baby carefully, like he had done it a hundred times before.I frowned, feeling very confused and disoriented.

“What…” My voice came out as dry as paper. “What is going on?”

The man froze before slowly turning to look at me. Shock filled his face.“You’re awake.” he breathed.

Before I could ask anything else, the doctors rushed in, checking me and probing for questions

“Her vitals are stable!”

“She’s conscious!”

“Can you hear me, ma’am?”Nothing was making sense.

It felt like I was in a fever dream and everything was happening too fast. Until they said it.

“You were in a coma for eighteen months.”My world stopped.

Eighteen months? That was impossible.

“You had a severe accident and you were lucky to survive.”

Accident?

The memory of the car crash came back in full force. The road. The lights. The person who saved me.

I glanced at the young man who was in the room with the baby and still didn’t understand his involvement in this.

One of the doctors seemed to realize my confusion and smiled gently.“He’s yours.”The words didn’t register.

“He… what?”

“Your son,” the man added softly, stepping closer. “You gave birth while you were unconscious.”

I stared at the baby in silent shock. I gave birth while I was in a coma? It was my baby?

“No,” I shook my head slowly.

“That’s not possible.”But it was.

They explained everything bit by bit until I understood and my memory returned to me in pieces.

Damien had left me and I had gotten a call about my pregnancy, just before I had gotten into an accident.

Someone else had saved me. Not Damien. And somewhere in between all of that, I had began a new strange life.

My gaze returned to the child. He had big familiar eyes. He looked like Damien.

A sharp ache pierced through my chest.Everything felt like a cruel joke. It all seemed like a grand prank scheme.

I half expected someone to pop out from the shadows with a smile and a camera and say.“We got you!”But in the past two hours since my ‘resurrection’, everything still seemed very real.

Everything that made the past and my present real, was a goddamn blur.

The only thing left was my future.

I reached for my phone with trembling hands. It felt strange, like I was holding something from another life.

I turned it on and the date stared back at me. My breath caught. A year had gone by just like that.My fingers moved slowly as I searched for the only name my heart still remembered.

Damien Cross.

The results came quickly. There were news articles and headlines of the young billionaire of course. I thought with a wry smile.

My chest tightened as I opened one.

“Business Tycoon Damien Cross Announces Engagement to Longtime Love Genevieve.”

My eyes burned with tears. There they were. Smiling. Happy. Complete. Like I had never existed.

They were engaged huh?My grip on the phone tightened before I dropped it onto the bed.

Tears slid silently down my face and I wiped away at them angrily. I could no longer waste any tears for him or anyone else.

Besides me, the whimpering sounds persisted. I turned my head to see the baby awake already looking at me with a smile.

My heart clenched and hesitantly, I reached out and picked him up. He was warm and so small, yet so real.

My lips trembled as I held him closer.“My baby…” I whispered.

His tiny fingers curled around mine and I could not hold back on my tears as I held him in my arms. I guess I could cry for you.

I thought with a smile as my heart swelled with a feeling I could not describe.

I held him tighter, tasting salt as the tears kept pouring.

“I don’t know how… or why this happened,”

I said softly. “But I promise you…”

“I will protect you.”From everything. From the world. From the pain I knew too well.

And most of all…“From him.”

My eyes hardened slightly. Damien Cross would never know.

He would never take this child away from me or be able to hurt him like he hurt me.

As I vowed to myself I realized quietly that for the first time since I woke up, I wasn’t lost.

Because now, I had something worth fighting for.