Free Remembering Everly (Lost & Found #2) by J. L. Berg Page A

two, the candles long since burned out. Guilt slowly began to set in, but not just for the dinner I’d ruined.
    Was I any different than Trent in this situation?
    Wasn’t I just manipulating someone in order to get something I needed?
    Magnolia obviously had feelings for me, and I was going to use those to my advantage. It was exactly what Trent wanted me to do.
    How quickly the student had become just like the master.
    But I couldn’t stop now. The only way to protect her was to use her, because if I didn’t Trent would, and I’d seen the way she responded to powerful men. She didn’t deserve to be screwed over by someone like Trent. She might never recover.
    She took a seat on the plush sofa in the living room, tucking her legs beneath her as she waited for me to join her. Feeling like she might need some space, I chose the seat adjacent to the sofa and placed my elbows on my knees, letting out a frustrated sigh. The growing silence between us was almost deafening as she patiently waited for me to explain myself.
    Fuck, where do I even start?
    I could tell her another lie; I could go with the actual truth for a change. My life was filled with a hundred different lies, so many that sometimes it seemed difficult to see where one ended and the next began. Right now I just wanted to be honest with someone.
    “About six months ago, I woke up in a hospital with absolutely no memory of my past. When we met and you asked if I’d worked at that bar, I honestly didn’t know how to answer. I’d been in a coma and it did something to my memory.”
     Her brows furrowed in confusion, “A coma?” she asked. “How long?”
     “A little over two years.”
    “My God, August. Why did you never mention this?”
    She leaned forward, and I could see she wanted to take my hand, offer me comfort of some sort, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to play her affections that way. I knew which way this was going, but I wouldn’t use her sympathy over my situation to my advantage.
    I had to keep some of my integrity intact.
    “It’s not exactly the greatest pick-up line,” I replied. “And besides, I haven’t made it my business to tell many people. The few I have told usually react with a mixture of false sympathy and awkward remorse for my situation. It’s something no one can possibly comprehend, so why try to make them?”
    “I guess, but it must be an awfully lonely existence,” she commented, her eyes full of concern.
    My thoughts drifted to Everly—of Everly as she stood on a platform surrounded by mirrors in a beautiful white wedding dress. Her happy, tearful smile as she turned, admiring herself from every angle as she pictured herself walking down the aisle.
    With another man. The man I’d pushed her toward.
    “Yes, it can be,” I said, rising abruptly. I turned toward the large windows, pinching the bridge of my nose to keep the rising emotions at bay.
    “Well, now you have me. You don’t have to explain yourself. I get it. I mean—I don’t, but I can see the struggle in your eyes. I know it must be hard to have lost everything you had.”
    “I’m getting them back,” I tried to explain, turning back toward her. “The memories. That’s why I was late. They come without warning. Sometimes I black out for minutes…once it was an hour.”
    Her empathetic face turned to something closer to concern, mixed with a bit of horror.
    “How long has this been going on, August?” she asked, rising from the sofa. Her fingers hesitantly touched my shoulder and I glanced down to see her manicured hand resting there. I could feel the warmth of her touch. It felt foreign, different, but my stomach didn’t roll at the thought of it being there.
    I shrugged. “A few months,” I answered.
    Her eyes widened. “Have you seen a doctor?”
    I just shook my head. “No, and I won’t.”
    She opened her mouth to debate, but I interrupted. “I won’t lose my freedom again, and I will not end up back in that