YOU ASKED ME TO FORGET

CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN I WAS SUPPOSED TO HATE

The room stayed silent long after Damian spoke.

Because you asked me to forget everything… including me.

I stared at him, waiting for the punchline that never came.

Nothing about his face changed. No guilt. No panic. Just exhaustion. Like he had been carrying those words for a very long time.

“You’re lying,” I whispered.

“I wish I was.”

My fingers tightened around the hospital blanket. My heart was beating too fast now, hard enough to hurt.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would anyone ask for that?”

Damian didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he walked toward the window beside my bed and pulled the curtain slightly open. Rain tapped softly against the glass outside. The city beyond looked gray and blurred.

Cold.

Distant.

“Sometimes forgetting is easier than surviving,” he said quietly.

I hated how calm he sounded.

“Stop talking like you know me.”

That finally made him turn around.

For the first time since I woke up, there was something dangerous in his eyes.

“Trust me,” he said softly, “I knew you better than anyone.”

The way he said it made my chest ache strangely.

Not emotionally.

Physically.

Like my body remembered something my mind didn’t.

I looked away first.

“Then tell me my name.”

Silence.

I looked back at him sharply.

“You know it, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why haven’t you said it?”

His jaw tightened again.

“You told me not to.”

A chill crawled slowly down my spine.

“What kind of person was I?”

Damian stared at me for a long moment before answering.

“The kind that smiled even when you were falling apart.”

Something about that sentence felt personal. Too personal.

I swallowed hard.

“That’s not an answer.”

“No,” he agreed quietly. “It isn’t.”

Before I could push further, the door opened again.

A woman entered this time.

She looked elegant even in the terrible hospital lighting. Dark hair. Sharp eyes. Expensive clothes. But the moment she saw Damian standing near me, her expression changed instantly.

Tension.

Real tension.

“Damian,” she said coldly.

He didn’t move.

“What are you doing here, Celeste?”

Her gaze shifted toward me, and for one second I saw shock flash across her face.

Then pity.

That scared me more than anything else.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “She really doesn’t remember.”

“Leave,” Damian said immediately.

Celeste ignored him and walked closer to my bed.

“You probably shouldn’t be alone with him.”

The room froze.

Damian’s expression darkened instantly.

“Enough.”

“No,” Celeste snapped back. “She deserves the truth.”

“What truth?” I asked quickly.

Both of them looked at me.

But only Celeste answered.

“The truth about what happened before the accident.”

Damian stepped forward slowly. Calmly.

Too calmly.

“Celeste.”

A warning.

She laughed bitterly.

“You think erasing her memory makes you the hero?”

My stomach twisted.

Erasing.

The way she said it sounded real.

Not metaphorical.

Real.

I looked at Damian again.

“What did you do to me?”

His eyes met mine.

And for the first time…

I saw guilt.

Deep enough to drown in.

“It was the only way to protect you.”

“From what?”

He didn’t answer.

Celeste did.

“From him.”

The silence afterward felt suffocating.

Damian looked like he wanted to kill her.

Literally.

And somehow that terrified me less than the fact that part of me still felt safe near him.

None of this made sense.

If he was dangerous, why did my body relax whenever he spoke?

Why did his voice feel familiar?

Why did it hurt looking at him?

“I think you should leave,” Celeste said softly to him.

But Damian’s eyes stayed on mine.

Only mine.

“You can ask me anything,” he said quietly. “And I’ll answer honestly.”

Celeste scoffed.

“That’s funny coming from you.”

I pressed my fingers against my temples. A headache was beginning to form behind my eyes.

Too many questions.

Too many lies.

“Did I love you?” I asked suddenly.

Both of them went still.

The question surprised even me.

Damian’s expression changed first.

Not softer.

Worse.

Painful.

Like I had touched something broken inside him.

“Yes,” he said finally.

Celeste looked away.

I frowned.

“Then why do I feel afraid of you?”

Damian opened his mouth—

But suddenly something flashed inside my head.

A memory.

Quick.

Violent.

Rain.

Screaming tires.

Blood on glass.

A voice shouting my name—

I gasped sharply and grabbed my head.

Everything spun.

“Hey—”

Damian reached for me instantly, but the second his fingers touched my arm, another image exploded in my mind.

A hotel hallway.

My hands shaking.

Damian covered in blood.

And me crying while saying—

“You promised me nobody else would die.”

I shoved him away instinctively.

“Don’t touch me!”

The fear in my own voice shocked me.

Damian froze immediately.

Not angry.

Not offended.

Destroyed.

The machines beside my bed started beeping faster.

Celeste rushed toward me. “Breathe slowly—”

“What did he do?” I whispered desperately. “What happened?”

Neither of them answered fast enough.

And that terrified me.

“I remember blood,” I said shakily. “Why do I remember blood?”

Damian looked like he hadn’t slept in years.

“Because you saw terrible things.”

“That’s not enough!”

My voice cracked.

The headache became unbearable now. Sharp pain behind my eyes.

Pieces of memories flashed randomly.

A g*n.

Someone crying.

Running footsteps.

Damian yelling my name.

Then darkness.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Stop…”

“Doctor!” Celeste shouted toward the hallway.

“No!” I grabbed her wrist desperately. “Don’t call anyone yet.”

I looked at Damian again.

“Tell me the truth.”

His silence lasted too long.

Then finally—

“You were never supposed to survive that night.”

Cold spread through my entire body.

“What?”

“The car crash wasn’t an accident.”

The room suddenly felt smaller.

I could barely breathe.

“Someone tried to kill you,” Damian continued quietly.

I stared at him.

“Who?”

His eyes darkened slightly.

“That’s the part you wanted to forget.”

Before I could respond, the door burst open again.

This time it was the doctor and two nurses.

“Her heart rate is unstable,” the doctor said quickly.

“I’m fine—”

“You need to calm down,” he insisted.

One nurse adjusted something on the IV beside me.

I immediately pulled my arm away.

“No drugs.”

The nurse hesitated.

Damian stepped closer. “Don’t force her.”

The doctor looked uncomfortable again.

“Mr. Damian, she needs rest.”

“She needs answers,” Celeste snapped.

“Enough,” Damian said sharply.

The room fell silent immediately.

Even the doctor backed away slightly.

I noticed it this time.

Everyone in this hospital was afraid of him.

Why?

Who exactly was Damian?

The doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. “Maybe visitors should leave for tonight.”

“No,” I said quickly.

All eyes turned toward me.

I looked directly at Damian.

“I want him to stay.”

Celeste stared at me like I had lost my mind.

Honestly, maybe I had.

Because despite everything—

Despite the fear, the confusion, the strange memories—

Some part of me still trusted him.

And I hated it.

Damian looked surprised too.

“You’re sure?”

“No,” I admitted softly. “But I feel like if you leave… something bad will happen.”

A strange expression crossed his face after I said that.

Almost heartbreak.

Celeste exhaled sharply. “You always did this.”

I frowned. “Did what?”

She looked at Damian bitterly.

“You kept choosing him.”

The room went quiet again.

Before I could ask what she meant, Celeste turned and walked toward the door.

But right before leaving, she stopped.

Then looked back at me one last time.

“If your memories return,” she said carefully, “ask him about the fire.”

Damian’s entire body stiffened.

“Celeste.”

Too late.

She was already gone.

The second the door shut behind her, the atmosphere changed completely.

The word fire echoed in my head strangely.

Fire.

Why did that word scare me?

I slowly turned toward Damian.

“What fire?”

His face became unreadable again.

“You need to rest.”

“No.”

My voice was sharper now.

“You don’t get to hide things from me anymore.”

For a second, I thought he might refuse.

Then he sighed quietly and sat beside my bed again.

Closer this time.

“The night of the fire,” he said slowly, “was the night everything between us ended.”

My chest tightened painfully.

“What happened?”

His eyes stayed on the floor for a moment before meeting mine again.

“You died.”

I stopped breathing.

“What?”

“That was the night I lost you.”

The machines beside me beeped faster again.

“But I’m alive.”

“Yes,” he said softly.

“That’s the problem.”

A cold feeling crawled down my spine.

Nothing about that sentence sounded normal.

Or safe.

“What does that mean?”

Damian looked at me for a long time.

Then he reached slowly into the inside pocket of his coat.

And pulled out a photograph.

Old.

Slightly burned at the edges.

He handed it to me carefully.

My fingers trembled as I took it.

The moment I looked at the picture—

My blood turned cold.

Because the woman standing beside Damian in the photo looked exactly like me.

Same eyes.

Same face.

Same scar near the collarbone.

But written across the corner of the burned photograph, in dark ink, were four words.

SHE DIED TWO YEARS AGO.

chapter 3 coming soon.....