Page 14 of Stealing Chances

Her head moved subtly as she tapped the spot on my forearm. “I thinkyoushould look at it.”

I knew what was there.

One of my closest friends and coworkers had done the tattoo for me while giving me so much shit because of the hidden word.

But Harper’s tone had me afraid to look.

Afraid that my world was about to shift all over again.

Slowly, I pulled my arm back and turned it to look at the spot I’d just shown her. My stomach dropped and the bed disappeared from beneath me when the word I’d expected to see wasn’t there. In its place was a four-letter word.

Aname.

Scar.

It felt like an eternity passed before I finally forced myself to look at the girl sitting next to me. Same as she had been for days.

Looking destroyed. Lost.

Looking like she refused to run no matter what I threw at her.

Curses and denials gathered on my tongue even as her earlier words replayed in my mind.“But the thing is that you don’t need to be able to access those memories to know that I’m not someact. That I’m not someprankto make you miserable. You already have the proof you need.”

Jesus, how could everything I knew be a lie?

How was I supposed to trust my thoughts anymore?

Because this was thatproofshe’d talked about, and my mind was still screaming it was wrong.

My heart was violently thrashing, begging me to continue fighting for the girl on my left because the one on my right was a stranger.

With one last glance between the three of them, I let my head fall to the pillows and released a sigh as my year with Harper flashed through my mind in bits and pieces. Faster and faster until it came to a crashing end.

And that devastation I’d been wrapped in since I’d woken exploded until it felt like I was suffocating. Drowning in the heartache and the fear that I wouldn’t get Harper back—that I’d pushed her away for good...

Because none of it had been real.

He hadn’t spoken.

Ever since he’d noticed my name on his arm two days ago, Chase had sat there. Staring blankly ahead, even as people came and went. Looking like we’d all betrayed him. Likehe’dbetrayed himself.

And I’d been there as much as I could. Waiting for him to regain any piece of his memory. Waiting for him to talk to me. Waiting for him to justlookat me.

But he hadn’t, and my heart had slowly broken a little more.

And I knew I should’ve been more excited for him to be released from the hospital and come home, but as I’d cleaned and shopped for groceries for the first time in over a week, the unknowns and worries had plagued me.

Because even though he’d only been awake four days, I’d realized my hope that his memory would come backthe next daywas already beginning to fade while my suspicions grew.

Whether or not he’d harbored feelings for Harper all these years, I wasn’t sure. But at leastsomeof his ‘created’ memories with her were actually his memories with me. And he’d been terrified that he’d lost her because he’d woken with another woman in his bed...

He’d been desperate to make her know he hadn’t cheated on her...

As soon as he’d mentioned the lilies that he’d tattooed on me, my worries had formed. When he’d tried showing her the tattoo on his arm that was my name and not hers, they’d begun spreading through my veins like a disease that had only grown over the past couple of days.

I’d never worried about my relationship with him. But what if these created memories were actually his fears with me come to life?

What if he’d confessed his sins without realizing what he was doing?

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