Chapter 1

The world tilted, then went black for a second.

When I opened my eyes, Jess was screaming my name.

A cyclist, headphones on, had blown through a red light, and I' d shoved Jess out of the way.

My head hit the pavement, not too hard, but enough to make things swim.

"Ethan! Oh my god, Ethan, are you okay?"

Jess knelt beside me, her face pale.

In the ambulance, the paramedic shone a light in my eyes.

"Possible concussion, we' ll take you in for observation."

Jess held my hand, her grip tight. "He saved me," she kept telling them.

At the hospital, after they checked me over and said it was a mild concussion, an idea sparked.

A stupid, funny idea, or so I thought.

When Jess came into the room, her brow furrowed with worry, I looked at her, blinked slowly.

"I' m sorry," I said, trying to sound confused. "Who... who are you?"

Her eyes widened.

For a moment, she looked genuinely scared.

Then, a strange expression flickered across her face, something I couldn' t quite read.

"Oh, Ethan," she said, her voice suddenly soft, a little too sweet.

"You don' t remember me?"

I shook my head slowly, committing to the bit. "Should I?"

She glanced around the empty corner of the ER waiting area, then leaned in close.

"Ethan, honey, I' m Jessica, your... well, this is awkward."

She bit her lip, a classic Jess move when she was about to be dramatic.

"The thing is, you were a little confused even before you hit your head."

"Confused how?" I asked, playing along.

"Well," she took a deep breath. "I' m not your fiancée. Chloe is."

My mind blanked, but not from the concussion. Chloe? Her best friend Chloe?

"Chloe?" I repeated, genuinely thrown now.

"Yes, Chloe. My best friend. She' s your fiancée. We were just... out together. As friends."

Jess' s eyes were wide, innocent.

Too innocent.

A cold feeling started in my stomach. This wasn' t funny anymore.

"My fiancée is... Chloe?"

"Yes," Jess said, nodding seriously. "She' s on her way. She' s been so worried."

I stared at her, the prank feeling sour in my mouth.

She was really going with this.

Why?

"You must have been so confused, calling me your fiancée earlier," Jess continued, her voice dripping with fake sympathy.

"It' s okay. The doctor said memory loss can be like this."

She was selling it hard.

I watched her, a new kind of observation kicking in, sharper than before.

She wasn' t just playing along with my prank, she was hijacking it.

For what?

The doctor came back then, asking more questions.

I kept up the amnesia act, watching Jess out of the corner of my eye.

She looked relieved, almost... excited?

This was not how I thought this would go.

Not at all.