Chapter 2 #2
"I don't have time."
"Please." Her voice dropped even lower, almost pleading. "It's something major between us. I have to tell you in person. Even half an hour would be enough. I'll wait for you, okay?"
Why did her voice always make me go soft?
I clenched my jaw, ready to refuse. But Fenrir whimpered quietly inside me, urging me to say yes. What if she was telling the truth? What if she really did have something important to say?
"…Fine." I finally heard myself answer. "I'll head back now."
"Thank you." Relief flooded her voice, and I felt like I'd made the right call. "I'll wait for you. I'll always wait for you."
I hung up, hating myself even as I turned the car around. The scent of white roses filled the cabin like a silent reproach. I could only apologize to Liv in my heart.
Thirty minutes. That's all I'd give Serenity. Once I'd dealt with whatever she needed, I'd come back to visit Liv.
The mountain road wound through the darkness. I pressed the accelerator and got home as fast as possible. As I rounded a sharp curve, a figure suddenly darted out of the roadside trees into the middle of the road.
"Fuck!" I yanked the wheel hard, stomping on the brake. Tires screamed against the asphalt. The car skidded sideways, stopping just short of the guardrail.
My heart pounding, I jumped out. The girl who had run into the road even more recklessly than I had lay face-down on the shoulder, completely still. Pale moonlight washed over her. She looked dead.
"Are you okay?"
I turned her over. Long platinum hair spilled away from her face.
In that moment, the whole world stopped.
"Liv?"
The name tumbled from my lips, trembling, carrying six months of pain and guilt.
I stared wide-eyed, as if split in two. Half of me—the rational half—kept insisting Liv was dead.
I'd watched her sink into the sea. We had searched and never found her.
She couldn't possibly be alive. But the other half screamed: It's her! It's her!
Look at that face—it was identical.
Her features, her build, even the faint freckles on her cheeks—everything matched perfectly.
It was Liv.
"Liv, is that you?" I patted her face. "Wake up, please wake up!"
She wasn't badly hurt, but she lay there unresponsive.
Hospital. She needs a hospital. Panic overtook me. I gathered her into my arms and put her in the passenger seat. The white roses I'd placed there scattered to the floor, petals everywhere.
I kept glancing at her face as I drove. I was terrified this was a dream. I was terrified she'd vanish if I blinked.
I felt like I was forgetting something, but I couldn't spare the thought for it now.
At the hospital, doctors wheeled her away on a stretcher into the emergency room. I was forced to wait outside and paced the corridor. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Serenity calling.
I was about to answer when my finger hesitated.
Did I really want to take this call?
I didn't want Serenity to know about this. I didn't want to give her another chance to hurt Liv or deceive me. Liv's return felt like a warning—a sign that I needed to stop getting entangled with a woman who had betrayed me. Even if she was my fated mate, it was time to draw a clear line.
It's time to end this.
Time to get back on track.
So I steeled myself and hit decline.
The phone went quiet. Thirty minutes later, she called again.
I declined again.
A third time.
A fourth.
By the sixth call, she stopped trying.
Through the hospital corridor window, I watched the Moon Goddess retreat from her throne, the sky growing pale with dawn.
Finally, the doctors emerged from the emergency room.
"She's fine," they said. "Just a mild concussion and some scrapes. But there's a small complication."
"What complication?"
"She appears to have amnesia. Once she wakes up, we'll run more tests."
I paid for the best private room and sat by her bed and watched her sleep. Under the harsh white lights, her resemblance to Liv was still uncanny. No—it wasn't a resemblance.
It was identical.
I was certain of it now.
"Who are you…" I whispered and reached toward her face. Before I could touch her, her eyelashes fluttered. Her eyes slowly opened—the same color as Liv's.
I leaned closer. "You're awake."
She looked at me in confusion, then at the room around her, and tried to sit up.
"Don't move." I steadied her. "You're hurt. You need to rest."
"Where… where am I?" she asked.
"The hospital." I swallowed hard. The doctors had warned me, but I had to ask. "What's your name? Do you remember who you are?"
She frowned and struggled to recall. After a long moment, she shook her head. "I don't remember."
"Nothing at all? Try again—anything. What do you remember?"
She closed her eyes, as if diving back into her memories. Pain crossed her face, and she pressed her hands to her head.
"I don't remember… I really don't… I only remember running…"
"Running?"
"Running with a boy." Her eyes opened, distant and unfocused, as if plucking a precious shell from the river of time.
"Bloodsucking monsters were chasing us. We ran and ran until we couldn't anymore.
The boy told me to let go of his hand so we could split up…
But I knew. Those creatures only wanted him. "
My breath stopped. The hospital window reflected my trembling hands.
"Then what?"
She smiled faintly. "I told him, 'Let's switch clothes. I'll run that way, and you—'"
"Hide. Hide in the snowdrift."
I heard the echo of a girl's voice from fifteen years ago, ringing in my ears.
She was talking about that day. The day I was kidnapped by vampires, locked in a warehouse. She'd found me by accident and saved me. She'd even disguised herself as me to lead them away... Because of that girl, I was alive today.
But when I was rescued, she had vanished. And my head injury was so severe I couldn't remember her face—only the flash of her platinum hair, bright as moonlight.
From that day forward, I swore that if we ever met again, I would repay her kindness and make her the happiest woman in the world.
But when we finally reunited, I had failed to keep that promise. She was pushed off a cliff right in front of me, and I couldn't even recover her body. She had slipped away from my life a second time.
And now, the Moon Goddess had shown me mercy again.
"That boy," I said. My voice was hoarse, barely recognizable. "Do you remember his name?"
She looked at me and slowly nodded.
"Elias," she said. "His name was Elias."