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She stands rigid, holding the knife with a vise grip. She stays silent. I drop my head and turn to leave. The lock slides closed as soon as I shut the door. The noise pounds into my heart, sending a sharp pain. What have I done?
I fly down the stairs two at a time and call Tori.
“Hey, Kase, Ell isn’t with me.”
“I know, I just left her. But she needs you. I can’t explain, because I don’t have a clue what’s going on. I need you to come to my apartment and stay with her. Don’t let her leave.”
“What the hell Kase? What did you do?”
“I don’t have time to explain. Please, Tori. Just know, I love her more than anything and I’d never hurt her.” I hang up the phone and slide into my Jeep.
“I need your help,” I say, storming into the frigid room. Stone rolls his head my direction, from his relaxed, feet propped up on the desk, position.
“What’s up?”
I pace the office behind him. “Ellie flipped out. She found a picture of us from when we were younger.”
“Oh, shit.” He pulls his feet down and sits forward.
“I knew when she found out, I'd have a lot to explain, but fuck, Stone. This didn’t go at all like I thought it would. She pulled a knife on me, threatening to stab me.”
He belts out a laugh and I glare at him. “Sorry. That’s just… that’s funny.”
“The hell it is. She told me she remembers her past. But the past she recalls isn’t real, and she didn’t remember me.” He tilts his head in confusion. “Can you look up her parents? She told me her stepfather abused her, but she doesn't have a stepfather.”
“Maybe her mom got remarried after you left.”
“That’s why I want you to look them up.” I run my hand through my hair, trying to rein my agitation in. “But that doesn't make sense because that would’ve happened after she had amnesia. When I mentioned amnesia to her, she thought I was crazy.”
Stone pounds on the keys, I pull up a chair next to him. I tell him her mom’s name and the information is in front of us instantaneously. We both look it over. She never remarried. What was Ellie talking about? He continues to run different searches and we look over each site that pops up, giving me nothing I already didn’t know.
The last site that pops up are court records. We both stare at the screen, reading the typed documents.
“Did you…” Stone asks me.
I shake my head, surprised by what we're reading. “No.”
He types again, digging into parts of the web I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of. My head hurts trying to keep up with his lighting fast keystrokes.
Then he gets there. It flashes, clear as day on the screen.
My stomach drops, and my words knot in my throat.
They say love is blind.
I was blinded by an echo and the lights just turned on.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ellie
My heart is heavy with so many emotions my chest aches. The picture. That was us. Why can’t I remember him? Remember us? We looked happy. Has my mind shut out all the happiness, leaving behind the heartache and pain? Yet, Kase never talked about our past. Did he work for Ray? I fall on my bed, covering my tear-filled eyes with my arms. I’m so confused. What’s real? My love for Kase is real and that stings the most. It was all a lie. He has to work for Ray. If he was part of my past, he knows about Ray and that means only one thing.
If he’s here now… Ray found me.
Fear trembles through my body, seeping into my bones. Bones that remember breaking and the pain that followed. He can’t find me. I push myself off the bed, determined that I have no other choice. I have to leave town.
I snatch clothes out of my closet, yanking them off the hangers, and stuff them into my duffle bag. The same duffle I had when I arrived in Gilley Cove six years ago. I thought I had found a place far enough away and small enough he’d never find me. The shrill of my phone ringing makes me jump. My hand shakes when I pick it up and I blow out a relieved breath when I see Tori's name.
