Page 20 of Burning for the Billionaire 8

Mel. I know Mel.Melanie. My heart soars with pure relief as I grab onto the memory of a blonde little girl, then the adult version of my sister. “My sister. Where is she?”

The woman’s eyes widen. “You remember! That’s great. She’s at home with the baby. I should call her right now. She’ll be ecstatic.” She plucks her phone out of her handbag, but I stop her.

“Wait.”

Her gaze snaps to me.

“Please, sit.” I watch her hurry to the same chair she’d been in when I first woke up and saw her. Iknowher—I can feel it. It’s just hard to get the details together. “Your name?”

Blinking rapidly, she pulls her shaking lip between her teeth. “I’m Grace.”

I stare at her. “Grace.” The name on my tongue sounds and feels familiar. It even makes me want to smile. I bet she made me smile a lot... if I could only remember. She looks uncertain and lost, so I assure her, “I’ll remember.”

Then I spread my fingers. She immediately understands and places her hand in mine. I feel like she needs the comfort of contact because obviously, we mean something to each other. I need it, too. As my fingers wrap around hers, I think I see relief flicker in her eyes.

“Tell me more,” I say.

She frowns.

“Help me remember. How I got here, everything.”Help me remember you, I add silently, because I think if I say it out loud, she’ll burst into tears again.

Lines of worry crease her forehead. “I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“You were so agitated the other day when you were trying to remember.”

“I don’t remember that,” I murmur. Then again, she did say I’ve been in and out of it for days. Letting out a breath, I tell her, “Please. I’ll stop you if I start getting overwhelmed.” Trying to remember everything on my own has been driving me crazy.

Grace starts talking about how we met, how I ended up in this hospital bed, and everything in between. It’s a lot, but I don’t let her know. Even with her help, I still can’t put together every detail of my life and it’s damn frustrating.

When she leaves, she looks just as disappointed as I feel.

***

My eyes fly open asI wake from a heart-pounding nightmare, and the heart monitor I’m attached to goes haywire. It’s just for a moment but long enough to get attention. A nurse hurries in, eyes already taking in my vitals on the various screens.

“Mr. Lockwood, are you feeling okay?” she asks.

I grimace at the name, and it occurs to me that I remember everything. That nightmare wasn’t so much a ghastly vision but a memory of how I got injured. It’s like that horror gave my brain the jumpstart it needed.

“I’m okay,” I assure. “Nightmare.”

The nurse’s expression softens with sympathy.

“I need to see Grace,” I blurt out. But then I glance at the window and see that it’s dark. I deflate when I look at the clock. It’s 1:30 a.m. “When she gets here, that is.”

“She’s here.”

My gaze swings to the nurse.

“Your fiancée is here. She’s always here. She’s curled up on one of the chairs in the waiting room, dozing.”

My heart melts. Grace isalwayshere. Did she sayfiancée?

“I’ll get her for you,” the nurse announces and exits after scribbling on my chart.

Waiting for Grace, I go over the pieces of my memory that had been missing—my friends, Grace, my identity as the Lockwood heir being revealed, and how I ended up in this hospital bed.

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