Page 113 of Fall With Me (Sugarland Creek)

Aunt Phoebe looks sad and heartbroken.

I can't gauge what's happening.

“Are y'all okay? What's goin' on?”

As I walk closer, I finally see a woman leaning against a car.

“Who are you?” I ask her.

“Very funny, Ellie,” she snaps, pushing off the door and coming toward me.

“Don't!” Mom yells at her. “She lost her memory and doesn't recognize you. We're not supposed to tell her anything she doesn't remember on her own.”

“Is that true or are you just fakin' it?” she asks me.

I study her features for any recognition. Light brown hair down to her shoulders that's pulled back with a pair of sunglasses on her head.

“I-I'm not. I lost part of it from a concussion,” I explain. “I don't know who you are…but I feel like I should?”

My heart pounds at the realization I've forgotten another person I used to know before the accident.

She stops about ten feet away from me and crosses her arms, then studies me. “I'm your older cousin, Angela.”

“My daughter,” Aunt Phoebe mutters.

She has a daughter?I should know that, right?

“We grew up like sisters. I can't believe you forgot me.” She sounds offended, and I feel awful.

“Sorry, I-I'm drawing a blank. They said it's probably temporary but could be permanent,” I explain. “The brain fog sucks.”

“I guess that'd explain how you're engaged to my nemesis.” She scolds. “I couldn't believe it when I read it in your recent interview.”

“Landen's your nemesis? You know him?”

She smirks. “Sweetheart, I dated him.”

I feel a punch to my gut at those words. Landen probably dated a lot of women before me. I know he has a past, but I never thought it'd somehow weave into mine.

“Why do you hate him?”

And more importantly, why did I?

Angela opens her mouth to speak, but Mom quickly interrupts.

“Angela, wait…” Mom pleads. “She doesn't know.”

“Know what?” Anxiety clamps down on my chest, and I have a feeling something's wrong. “Will someone just tell me what's goin' on? I don't care what the doctor said, I wanna know.”

Dad comes next to me. “Angela was in prison for the past eleven years and has just been released on parole.”

“Holy shit,” I mutter although I hadn't meant to say the words aloud.

“We wrote to each other every month. You came to visit me in Nashville the day before the rodeo. We talked about how we'd be roommates and travel together when you had races.”

She sounds genuine, and I'm annoyed with my brain that I can't remember any of this.

“I have no memory from after I arrived in Franklin,” I tell her. “But what does any of this have to do with Landen and you being in prison?”

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