“What the hell, Ava?” Theo shouts back while helping Nora straighten. “Why would you push her like


    that?”


    Ava doesn’t say anything. She just grabs her head and begins to slowly shake it. I get a bad feeling


    about this. Something wasn’t adding up. Why the hell wasn’t she happy to see her parents?


    I feel the answer deep inside me, but I block it. Refusing to acknowledge it. Call me delusional, or


    whatever the fuck you want, but I refuse to ept it. Ava was whole and well. That was the only truth I


    was going to ept.


    “Let’s all just calm down,” the doctor begins. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good exnation for why Ava


    reacted the way she did. It’s not good to agitate her.”


    Ava looks up. Emotions war inside of her. Her eyes are tearing up, and that’s when I realize that she


    doesn’t understand what the hell is going on. She is confused and on edge.


    “No.” Theo growls. “I get she just woke up from aa, but I want to know why the fuck she’s being


    such


    a brat.”


    Ava, hearing the words, cowers. Cursing, I get up, sit on the bed, and bring her into my arms. She grabs


    onto me and holds on as if her life truly depended on it.


    She faces Theo and Nora, tears running down her face. “I’m sorry. So sorry. But she came at me, and I


    didn’t know who she was. She scared me.”


    My arms tighten around her as we stare at her in shock. God. Please let it be that I heard her wrong.


    That my fucking ears, for some unknown reason, weren’t functioning well.


    “Ava, dear,” the nurse calls. “You know this two.”


    She shakes her head vigorously before wincing in pain.


    “No, I don’t, I don’t know who they are,” she cries. “Why does everyone think I know them? Should I


    know them?


    let go of her and ran a hand through my hair. Fuck. This wasn’t what I was expecting when she woke up.


    thought things would fall into ce, but this? None of us even thought that this would happen.


    the sums to me. Who are they, Rowan?”


    mpers me, yet she doesn’t remember her parents. When she woke up and called my name


    remembered me. Fuck, was I wrong.


    “They’re your parents,” I whisper as I look at her face for reactions.


    “What?” she all but screams. “No, they’re not, Kate and James Sharp are my parents. You know this,


    Rowan; why are you saying otherwise?”


    “He’s not lying. You’re our daughter, I’m Nora and this is Theo.” Tears fall down Nora’s face, and her


    voice


    catches


    Ava just shakes her head. “No, you’re not. I would know. I would remember something like that.”


    Doctor Charles cuts in. “Clearly something is wrong, so let’s do a few tests.”


    Hees straight to her and takes out a sh. He shines it in her eyes before switching it off. Next, he


    asks her to open her mouth wide, and he checks her tongue.


    “So far, everything seems pretty normal, so that’s good,” he tells us before focusing on Ava. “Do you


    remember what happened to you?”


    “No”


    “Can you tell me what thest thing you remember is?”


    She seemed hesitant at first. As if she is embarrassed or something. Finally, after a while, she speaks.


    “I remember going to sleep. It was mine and Rowan’s anniversary, and he didn’t show up.”


    Damn it. I missed all of our anniversaries just to spite her. She is a romantic at heart, so anniversaries


    were important. I knew this. That’s why I made sure to miss each one of them.


    “Okay, and what day was that?”


    “August, ninth, two thousand and neen,” she replies, as if it should be normal, but everyone else


    except her knows that it’s not