Chapter 3 #3
Cassian hadn’t taken his eyes off me. He shifted his weight and folded his arms, every inch of him radiating the kind of brooding seriousness that made my theory about the fake-husband casting feel even more convincing. “I texted her,” he replied. “She’s on her way.”
I nodded, satisfied. Once Felicity walked through that door, she could explain this entire elaborate setup and put an end to the increasingly ridiculous story everyone seemed determined to sell me.
“Why are you so certain I’m not your husband?” he asked at last, his gaze fixed on me.
A laugh escaped me. “Because just yesterday I told El that I was never, ever getting married.”
I’d declared it over margaritas with Felicity after yet another mind-numbing date. The man arrived an hour late, then told me he’d been finishing an important conversation with his ex and had lost track of time.
Every disastrous date seemed to arrive with a fresh reason to swear off men entirely.
And now, apparently, I had a husband.
It was almost funny.
The day after I’d sworn off marriage forever, I’d apparently woken up with one.
His eyes narrowed, and I could see the question forming in his expression. His lips parted, ready to challenge me, but before he could get a word out, the door swung open.
The guest of honor had finally arrived.
“Sia!” Felicity’s eyes found mine instantly. She crossed the room in two seconds, shouldering the brooding guy aside without a second glance. “You’re awake!” She didn’t hesitate, pulling me into a fierce, bone-crushing hug.
Pain shot through my ribs so viciously that a strangled sound escaped me. “My ribs,” I managed, barely getting the words out as I fought against another wave of pain.
Felicity recoiled so fast that she nearly stumbled backward. Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at me, both hands immediately hovering in the air, terrified to touch me again.
“Oh, shit. Sorry! I’m sorry.” Her face crumpled with guilt. “I forgot. I completely forgot you were injured.” She laughed shakily, blinking rapidly as tears filled her eyes. “I’m just…” Her lips trembled into a smile. “You’re awake.”
“Where were you?” I asked, shifting against the pillows.
The movement sent a dull ache through my ribs, and I instinctively stopped halfway through, waiting for the pain to ease before I continued looking at Felicity.
“I was in the cafeteria. I didn’t want to leave, I swear, but this husband of yours,” she said, throwing a glare over her shoulder at the man, “ordered me to. He used his stupid, deep voice and everything: ‘Go eat. You’ll be of no help to her if you collapse.’”
“Okay,” I breathed. “Cat’s out of the bag. We’re done with the prank, El.”
She blinked at me.
I gave her a tired smile. “I’ll admit it was a good one. You had me completely fooled. But can you call my actual doctor now?”
Her brows drew together slowly, confusion wiping away every trace of amusement. She looked at me for several seconds, searching my face, then shook her head.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her expression growing more unsettled with every passing second. “What prank?”
I gave her an exasperated look. “You’re hilarious. Really. I’m terrified, I’m panicking, I don’t know what’s going on, haha, you got me. Amazing prank. Ten out of ten. Now, can you please call a real doctor?” I pleaded. “My head is killing me.”
The fake doctor took a cautious step toward me. “I can check—
“Not a word from you, Mr. Cheap Coat,” I snapped.
He shut his mouth, looking down at his lab coat with a wounded expression. “This was a gift,” he murmured under his breath.
But Felicity wasn’t playing along. Her face had gone completely blank. “Sia,” she said carefully, “I’m not playing a prank. I would never do this to you. Not about something like this.”
I studied her face, searching for the familiar signs that would give her away.
I knew every one of her tells. If this were one of her elaborate jokes, she would have cracked by now.
Her mouth would have twitched, her eyes would have betrayed her, and she’d eventually have dissolved into helpless laughter.
She wasn’t doing any of those things.
Not a twitch.
Not a smile.
Nothing.
A wave of dread swept through me.
If Felicity wasn’t lying, then the doctor wasn’t lying either.
The accident had really happened. The years I’d been told were missing hadn’t been some elaborate joke designed to scare me. They were gone, locked somewhere inside my mind, leaving me with a life I had apparently lived but couldn’t remember.
And the man standing beside my bed really was my husband. My gaze shifted toward him, almost unwillingly.
My breathing came faster, each breath shallow and unsatisfying. The room seemed to sway around me, the sterile white walls losing their sharpness as dark spots gathered at the edges of my vision and spread inward.
I blinked hard, trying to clear them.
It only made everything blur further.
The machines beside me seemed to grow quieter, their beeping fading beneath the rushing in my ears. My head felt unbearably heavy, and I struggled to keep my eyes open.
“Alessia?”
His voice reached me from somewhere far away.
I tried to focus on it.
I couldn’t.
My vision narrowed to a tiny patch of light.
Then even that disappeared.
Everything went black.