Ash grimaced, face flushing with embarrassment. “I don’t recall anything from before. I want to believe you, and the photos must mean we knew each other.”

“Knew?” I let out a laugh. “We took them last month.” Tears stung the backs of my eyes and I opened and closed my mouth, unsure what to say. This wasn’t how I’d pictured our reunion in my fantasies. There was crying, yes, but tears of joy, not this, anything but this.

Maya stepped in front of him. “Ash has been under a lot of stress with his condition and you showing up is making things worse. We need to go.”

“G-go?” I stammered. “You can’t leave. I need to understand. I want to know why—”

“Can’t you see you’re upsetting him?” She looped her arm around his.

“Maya, she knows me,” Jack said, his voice raised. “I need to talk to her.”

“Ash—”

“No. Lily, maybe you can help me figure out what I was doing in Maryland.” He didn’t spot Maya glaring at me, but I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was not losing him again.

“You have a doctor’s appointment,” Maya said.

“Who cares about Dr. Adler?” Jack snapped in a tone I’d never heard him use before.

“I do,” Maya said, her voice firm, nonnegotiating. “It’s important, and he’s going on vacation as of tonight. You have to see him. Today. Now.”

“I know, I know, you’re right,” Jack said with a grimace and I fought back more tears. I didn’t want him to leave, couldn’t bear us being apart any longer. He was alive.

He lifted his hand a little as if he might reach for mine, but instead of touching me, his gaze dropped to the bracelet on my wrist, the one with the heart-shaped charm he’d given me for our first Valentine’s Day, a look of concentration taking over his face. “We live at...uh...”

“Twenty-two forty-nine Birch Road,” Maya said. “Come at seven.”

“I’ll be there,” I whispered, wanting to shove a hand into my chest and cradle my heart as I watched them walk away.

18

ASH