My gaze shot to her wide, green eyes. God, those eyes…I remembered them well. Still full of mystery and shining with innate strength. I wanted to delve in and unearth all her secrets.

Her mouth parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, or maybe, like me, she was having trouble drawing in a deep breath. She lifted an arm, covered in white bandages from wrist to just below her elbow. An identical bandage wrapped her other arm. My heart dropped to my stomach, landing somewhere in the dregs of my gut.

“What happened to you?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, my feet across the floor and at her bedside before the second hand on the clock above the door could move two spots. I took her arm in my hands, my fingers sliding along the bandages.

And I forgot that I didn’t remember, that I was supposed to tell her to move on with her life and forget about me. Getting into the subject of my amnesia wasn’t part of the clean break Abbott insisted on.

“Alex?” My gaze landed on her face. Hurt and something else pooled in her eyes. It could have been so many things, a plethora of emotion all vying for residence in that stare.

Which told me shit, except that my presence made her cry.

She grabbed my hand in hers and squeezed hard, as if she feared I’d slip away. A tear slipped down her colorless cheek. “I thought you were dead. When he told me you weren’t, I wanted to believe it, but I was scared.”

“What happened?” How the fuck had she ended up in the hospital with bandages that suggested she’d slit her wrists? Why was she not furious or terrified of me? “Where have you been?”

“Doesn’t matter. Oh God…you’re real, right? I’m not dreaming?”

Something about the desperation in her tone fucked with my head. I pulled my hand away and stepped back. “I just came to make sure you were okay.”

She blinked, her expression blanking for a few seconds before confusion took hold of her features. “What are you saying?”

I dropped my gaze to my feet. “You’re better off without me. What I did, what you did, whatever we did together, we need to move on.”

“No,” she said with a resolved shake of her head. “Before Zach showed up, things were finally settling between us. I wanted to be with you. I still want that, more than anything.”