Mag-log inChapter 292 Ethan's POV I barely noticed when the light started fading. Didn't register the sun moving across the sky, didn't feel the temperature dropping as evening approached. All I could see was her face. Cynthia’s face. The memory had ignited something in my brain — not everything, not a flood of returned memories like I desperately wished for—but enough. Enough to remember the curve of her jaw, the exact shade of her eyes, the way her blonde hair fell just to her shoulders. I needed to get it down on paper before it faded. Before the details blurred back into the fog that had consumed the last six months of my life. I'd found paper in Prisca's room and a pencil, and I'd started drawing. Over and over. Sketch after sketch. The first one was wrong — her eyes weren't quite right, too wide, too round. The second was closer but her nose was off, too sharp. The third was better. The fourth is even more so. I kept going, my hand moving frantically across the page, erasi
Chapter 291Ethan's POVPrisca's lips were soft against mine.Warm. Insistent. Moving with a hunger I couldn't reciprocate but couldn't seem to escape either.My hands were on her bare shoulders—when had I let them get there?—and she was pressed against me, her naked body seeking heat and connection and something I couldn't give her.This is wrong, the rational part of my brain screamed. Stop. Push her away. This isn't—And then I felt a bright and sudden and overwhelming.Like lightning cracking across a dark sky.…I was in a car.Night outside. The ocean somewhere close—I could hear waves.And there was a woman beside me.Short blonde hair. Beautiful face. Eyes that held years of pain and longing and something fierce that made my chest ache.Cynthia.My wife.I could see her. Actually see her for the first time in six months.I had just finished kissing her then I led her to a beach house close by and she turned and looked at me."Kiss me again," she said, her voice raw, desperate.
Chapter 290Ethan's POVPrisca stood completely naked in front of me.No hesitation. No shyness. No attempt to cover herself.Just bare skin and deliberate seduction, her body positioned in a way that was impossible to ignore.And despite everything—despite the confusion clouding my mind, despite the emptiness where my memories should be, despite the desperate loneliness that had been my constant companion for six months—I felt my body respond.Heat pooled low in my stomach.Blood rushed places it hadn't in half a year.My breath caught.Because it had been so long.Six months since I'd woken up in this farm house with no memory of who I was or how I'd gotten there.Six months of living in this isolated farmhouse with Gavin and Prisca, working the fields, trying desperately to piece together fragments of a life I couldn't remember.Six months without touch. Without intimacy. Without anything resembling normalcy.And my body—traitorous, desperate thing that it was—wanted this.Wanted t
Chapter 289Cynthia's POVI was still trying to figure out how to politely extract my hand from Nikolai's when he suddenly smiled and said, "I have something for you."Before I could respond, he stood up from his seat and moved around the table to stand behind me."Nikolai, what are you…" I started.I felt something cool and delicate settle against my collarbone, heard the soft click of a clasp being fastened at the nape of my neck.A necklace.He'd put a necklace on me."There," Nikolai said, his voice warm with satisfaction. "Perfect."I reached up instinctively, my fingers finding the pendant—something smooth and substantial, probably expensive if I had to guess based on the weight of it."What is this?" I asked, my voice coming out sharper than I'd intended.Nikolai returned to his seat, looking pleased with himself."Just something I saw on my way to your restaurant," he said casually. "I thought it would be beautiful on you."The words hung in the air between us.Just something
Chapter 288Ethan's POVSix months.One hundred and eighty-three days since I'd woken up in a strange bed, pain radiating through my chest, my head pounding, my memories completely blank except for fragments — scattered pieces of a puzzle I couldn't put together.My name was Ethan.I knew that much because the old man who'd found me half-dead in his field had gone through my pockets looking for identification and found nothing except a wedding ring.A simple gold band that had two names engraved on the inside.Ethan & CynthiaEthan. That was me.And Cynthia... Cynthia was someone important. Someone I'd married. Someone I needed to find.But I didn't know who she was.Couldn't picture her face. Couldn't recall a single moment we'd shared together.Just her name, burning in my mind like a brand.Cynthia.The old man's name was Gavin.He was in his seventies, weathered and bent from decades of farm work, with kind eyes and calloused hands that had carefully tended to my wounds when he'd
Chapter 287Cynthia's POVNikolai had insisted on staying to help me close up the restaurant.We moved through the space together in comfortable rhythm—him wiping down the counters in the prep area while I organized the sample menus and design sketches I'd been reviewing earlier."I still can't believe they actually found him," I said, breaking the silence. "After all this time, Pascal was just... here. In Missford. The whole time."Nikolai looked up from the counter he was cleaning, his expression thoughtful."It makes sense, though," he said. "Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. The police were searching everywhere except right under their noses.""But now they have him," I said, unable to keep the excitement from my voice. "Or they're close to having him. And once they do, he'll have to tell them where Ethan is. He'll have to—"My voice caught, emotion threatening to overwhelm me.Nikolai set down the cloth he'd been using and crossed the kitchen to stand beside me.
Chapter 154 Ethan's POV Margaret flinched slightly but held her ground. "I don't know, sir. I wasn't informed either. But half the board is already in there, and…" I didn't wait to hear the rest. I turned and strode toward the conference room, fury propelling me forward, every nerve in my body s
Chapter 159 Cynthia's POV I screamed, a raw, terrified sound that tore from my throat but it wasn't just my voice. Behind me, another scream pierced the air. Mrs. Daniels. Time seemed to slow and speed up simultaneously. One moment I was falling, certain I was about to hit the ground beside Gr
Chapter 153 Cynthia's POV "Mom!" The moment Amber heard my voice outside his door, it flew open. His face was a mess — red, swollen, tear-streaked — but the pure joy that lit up his eyes when he saw me standing there made my heart clench. He threw himself into my arms so hard I stumbled back a
Chapter 163Cynthia’s POVThe nurse looked between us, her eyes moving from Ethan’s rigid frame to my face, clearly unsure of who the question was meant for — or if there even was a question yet.“Uhm…” I heard my own voice before I fully registered the decision forming in my head. “In that case, I







