Chapter 2 The Return

It had been over a year since Elena King had been declared dead. One year since she had drowned under the cruelest of circumstances, leaving Alexander alone to grieve. He had tried to move on, to rebuild his life from the ashes, but every step had felt like walking through a dark void, with his past and his future torn apart.

Tonight, that void seemed a little less empty.

Elena King had come back.

But not in the way he had hoped.

The door to the private clinic swung open, and a woman entered, looking disoriented, her wide eyes darting around the sterile, cold room. Her hair, a dark cascade of waves, clung to her damp skin, and her clothes were tattered, the remnants of a long journey. She had been found.

Elena... or at least, someone who looked like her. But something was wrong. The woman before him wasn't the same. The fire in Elena's eyes, the sharp wit and intelligence that had always made her so captivating - they were gone. In their place was a blank, haunted stare.

"Who are you?" Alexander asked, his voice low, controlled, but beneath it, there was a tremor of something he couldn't quite name. Fear? Hope? Desperation?

The woman hesitated, her brow furrowing as she glanced at him. "I... I don't know. I was... I was told you would know me."

The words felt like a punch to his chest. This couldn't be Elena. Could it?

The woman's name, the one they had found in the clinic records, was Eva. But her name meant little to him. All he could see was the face of the woman he had loved - or at least, the reflection of her.

"You're not Elena," he whispered, his voice cracking despite his efforts to keep it steady.

"I'm not?" The woman's voice was shaky, her confusion mirrored in her expression. "But I-"

"You're not," he repeated, though the words felt hollow even to his own ears. There was a part of him that wanted to believe, to grasp onto this fleeting hope like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline. But his heart ached in a way that said otherwise.

Eva took a step back, her eyes darting toward the door as if the answer to her confusion lay beyond the sterile walls. "I don't remember anything. All I know is that... I was found on a beach. They told me... they told me I was supposed to go with you."

"You don't even remember your own name?" Alexander's voice was sharp now, frustration edging through.

"No," Eva replied, shaking her head. "No, I don't."

Alexander's mind was racing. He felt trapped, caught between the woman who had once been his everything and the stranger standing before him, who wore her face but had none of her spirit. His heart clenched with something that felt like loss, mixed with an unbearable uncertainty.

"You have to understand, I didn't ask for this. I don't remember anything about you, or me, or... any of it. I don't even know who I am." Her voice broke, her hands trembling as she gripped the edges of the hospital gown she wore.

Alexander's gaze softened despite the storm that churned inside him. The woman before him was a stranger in every sense, yet something about her tugged at his soul, pulling at the corners of memories that hadn't fully settled.

"I've spent every day since you... died... trying to find you," Alexander murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. "But the woman I loved is gone, replaced by this... ghost."

Eva flinched, hurt flashing across her features. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I never asked for any of this."

"Then why did you disappear?" His voice cracked, revealing the agony that lay beneath his cold façade.

"I don't know," she whispered. "All I know is that I was found. And they told me you would help me. That you would know me."

Alexander closed his eyes, rubbing a hand over his face, trying to stave off the rush of emotion threatening to consume him. This wasn't supposed to be how it ended. This wasn't supposed to be the reality he woke up to.

"I don't know how to help you," he admitted, the truth spilling out before he could stop it. "I don't know who you are. You're not the woman I married."

But as soon as the words left his lips, he regretted them. Eva's expression crumpled, as if he had physically struck her.

And in that moment, he realized something he hadn't wanted to acknowledge.

Despite everything, despite the pain and the betrayal, part of him still hoped - still wanted her. Even if this woman wasn't Elena, she carried a piece of her.

"I'll help you," he said finally, his voice thick with something he couldn't quite define. "But I need answers. And so do you."

Eva nodded, tears welling in her eyes as she wiped them away. "I want to remember. I want to know who I am."

As she spoke, the weight of the situation seemed to settle between them, heavy and inescapable.