Chapter 1
Pain.
Not the dull ache of sleeping in an awkward position. Not the soreness after a long day.
This was different.
It consumed me.
Every breath scraped through my chest. Every heartbeat sent waves of agony through my body until I couldn’t tell where it started or ended.
Am I... dying?
A sharp, antiseptic smell filled my lungs.
Hospital.
The realization came before my eyes could open.
I forced my eyelids apart.
White.
Blinding white.
The light stabbed into my eyes, making me squeeze them shut with a weak groan. My body felt impossibly heavy, as though someone had replaced my bones with stone. I tried lifting my hand to shield my face, but it barely twitched.
Nothing worked.
Panic fluttered in my chest.
“Meera?”
A man’s deep voice cut through the haze.
Warm. Familiar.
But... wrong.
I tried to answer, yet only a dry rasp escaped my lips.
“Easy, sweetheart. I’ll get the doctor.”
Sweetheart?
Why was he calling me that?
Footsteps echoed around the room.
Voices blurred together.
Machines beeped steadily somewhere beside me.
When I opened my eyes again, the brightness had softened enough for shapes to emerge. White ceiling. White walls. People dressed in blue moving around my bed. Their faces were still little more than shadows.
“I see you’re finally awake, Mrs. Kostas.”
The doctor smiled as he shined a light into my eyes.
“We’re going to run a few neurological checks.”
Mrs... Kostas?
The name struck me harder than the pain.
“No...” I whispered.
That wasn’t my name.
“I’m Meera Knight.”
The doctor and the man beside my bed exchanged a glance.
One filled with concern.
The other with something that looked dangerously close to heartbreak.
“Doc...” My voice cracked. “I’m confused.”
“You’ve been in a coma for four weeks,” the doctor explained gently. “Memory loss and disorientation are common. Can you tell me if your vision is blurry?”
A coma?
Four weeks?
My mind refused to accept the words.
Someone stepped closer.
“Here, ma’am.”
A pair of thick glasses settled onto my face.
The room snapped into focus.
The sudden clarity made me blink repeatedly.
IV lines snaked into my arm.
Dark bruises stained my skin.
Bandages wrapped around my shoulder.
My body looked like it belonged to someone else.
“So...” the doctor asked softly. “Can you see better now?”
I nodded.
Barely.
“Water.”
The word scraped painfully from my throat.
A nurse lifted a straw to my lips.
The cool water soothed the fire inside my throat, but only for a moment.
“Slowly,” the doctor warned.
I forced myself to obey.
Questions crashed into me all at once.
“What happened?”
“You were hit by a drunk driver,” the man beside my bed answered quietly. “The driver survived. He’s been arrested.”
I turned toward him.
Now that my vision had cleared, I could finally see his face.
Dark hair.
Strong jaw.
Tired eyes rimmed with sleepless nights.
He looked like someone who hadn’t left this room in weeks.
He was familiar.
Too familiar.
But...
My stomach twisted.
“Vincent?”
The name escaped before I could stop it.
His face froze.
Every trace of relief disappeared.
“What... did you call me?”
Confusion tightened around my chest.
“Vincent.” I frowned. “Why are you here?”
Silence.
Then I looked around the room again.
“Where’s Ray?”
No one answered.
My pulse began to race.
“Where’s my mom?”
Still nothing.
The silence was louder than any answer.
Fear spread through me like ice.
“Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
The pounding inside my skull exploded.
Fragments.
Rain.
Screeching tires.
Someone laughing.
Ray’s smile.
Vincent’s face.
A wedding ring.
None of it fit together.
“No...”
I grabbed my head.
The pain became unbearable.
“I don’t understand!”
Monitors erupted into frantic beeping.
“Mrs. Kostas, calm down.”
“I’M NOT MRS. KOSTAS!”
Hands grabbed my shoulders.
Nurses tried to keep me from ripping out the IV.
The doctor reached for a syringe.
“No!”
The needle slid into my arm.
A burning sensation spread through my veins.
Everything blurred.
The room dissolved into streaks of white.
The last thing I heard before darkness swallowed me again was the man’s broken voice.
“Please, Meera...”
His hand tightened around mine.
“...remember me.”
