Chapter-2 (The Lie)
685 Words
Darkness slowly began to break apart.
The first thing she felt was pain.
A deep, crushing pain that spread through her ribs, her head, and every part of her body.
The second thing she felt was fear.
Voices echoed somewhere far away.
Footsteps.
The steady beeping of a machine.
She tried to move, but a sharp gasp escaped her lips as pain shot through her side.
Immediately, the voices stopped.
“She’s awake.”
“Call the doctor.”
Panic rose inside her chest.
Awake?
Where was she?
Her eyelids slowly fluttered open.
Everything was blurred.
White lights.
A pale ceiling.
Shadows moving around her.
For a moment, she thought she was dreaming.
Then the smell reached her.
Antiseptic.
Medicine.
A hospital.
Her breathing quickened.
“No…” she whispered weakly. “What happened to me?”
No one answered immediately.
A tall man stepped into her view.
Black shirt.
Dark tattoos disappearing beneath his rolled-up sleeves.
Cold grey eyes fixed completely on her.
And yet, he looked at her as if she belonged to him.
Fear curled through her stomach.
She tried to sit up.
Pain exploded through her body.
A cry escaped her lips.
“Easy,” the man said quietly.
His voice was deep, controlled, almost gentle.
Almost.
She stared at him, terrified.
“Who are you?”
For a fraction of a second, he said nothing.
The silence felt wrong.
Too long.
Too careful.
Salvatore watched the confusion in her eyes.
No recognition.
No memory.
Nothing.
The doctors had been right.
She remembered absolutely nothing.
Not the crash.
Not the blood.
He stepped closer.
“I’m your husband.”
Her eyes widened.
“Husband?”
The word sounded unfamiliar, even to her own ears.
She searched his face desperately, waiting for something — anything — to feel familiar.
Nothing came.
Only emptiness.
“I don’t remember you,” she admitted, her voice trembling.
“That’s okay,” he replied smoothly. “You were in an accident.”
She looked around the room again, trying to understand.
“How long have I been here?”
“Three days.”
Three days.
Her heart began to race.
“Was I alone?”
The question hit harder than he expected.
Salvatore’s jaw tightened slightly.
“No,” he said. “I was here.”
The lie came easily.
She swallowed painfully.
“What’s my name?”
Silence.
A single heartbeat passed.
Then another.
Salvatore looked at her for a long moment.
He knew her real name.
He knew the life she had lost.
He knew the truth sitting between them like a loaded gun.
And he chose to bury it.
“Isabella,” he said softly.
The name sounded beautiful.
Gentle.
Believable.
To her, it felt like the first piece of herself she had found.
To him, it was another lie.
“Do I have a family?” she asked quickly.
“No.”
Another lie.
She noticed the hesitation this time.
Small.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
Her fingers curled tightly into the bedsheet.
“Why can’t I remember anything?”
The fear in her voice was no longer hidden.
The doctor entered before Salvatore could answer.
“You suffered a severe head injury,” the doctor explained gently. “Memory loss can happen after trauma. It may return slowly… or it may take time.”
Or never.
The doctor did not say the last part aloud.
Isabella looked down at her shaking hands. Nothing felt real.
Not the room.
Not the pain.
Not even her own name.
“Look at me,” Salvatore said quietly.
She hesitated, then lifted her eyes.
For the first time since waking up, his expression softened.
Not warm.
Not kind.
But softer than before.
“You’re safe,” he said.
And somehow, that frightened her more than the lies she could not yet see.
She studied his face one last time.
The impossibly handsome stranger with cold grey eyes.
Her husband.
At least, that was what he claimed to be.
With no memories to fight him…
And no truth left to hold onto…
She believed him.
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