The phone vibrated again.
Luke.
Adeline stared at the screen, her heart hammering. She hesitated—then hit Accept with a trembling hand.
"Adeline," his voice snapped before she could speak. "Stop playing games. I don't have time for your theatrics right now."
She winced. "I'm not—I'm telling the truth. I just woke up. The nurse said I was in a coma. I don't even know—"
"Save it," he cut in. "Hazel said you'd pull something like this. Everything always has to revolve around poor, pitiful Adeline, right?"
Hazel. Again. The name stabbed at her like a splinter she couldn't reach.
"I'm in a hospital," she said, slow and deliberate, anchoring herself. "They told me I was in a coma. I don't even know how to get home—"
"You're fine," Luke snapped. "Two days in a hospital bed don't erase your memory. Pull yourself together, get a cab, and be home by six. I have a flight tomorrow morning, and I need my bags packed. Suit, passport, charger—you know the routine."
"I don't know the routine," she said, voice cracking. "I don't even know where I live. I don't know what you're talking about—"
"You're unbelievable," he growled. "Is this about the ring again? Is that what this is? Some pathetic stunt because I didn't show up at the hospital on cue—"
"I don't even remember being engaged to you," she said, shaking now.
Silence.
Then, cold and final, he said, "Then maybe this was all a mistake."
The line went dead.
Adeline let the phone fall to the sheets, her fingers numb.
Mistake.
Everything inside her hurt—and not from the wreck. It was deeper than that. A hollow ache spreading in her chest, whispering that whatever life she'd lived before waking up…
It wasn't one she wanted back.
She turned her face into the pillow, the heart monitor's steady beep the only proof she was still here.
She didn't know who Luke really was.
But she was starting to understand what he wasn't:Someone who cared that she was broken.