Untill I Remember You ; A Billionaire Romance

Everything feels like a blur.

Too bright.

Too quiet.

Too empty.

I blink slowly, my lashes heavy, and the whiteness around me makes it hard to think. My body feels like it's been weighed down, like every part of me forgot how to move. There's a faint beeping beside me soft, rhythmic and something plastic is taped to my hand. An IV?

Hospital.

Why... am I in a hospital?

The door creaks softly, and footsteps shuffle closer. I want to turn my head but even that feels like too much.

"You're awake," a gentle voice says, filled with relief. A woman older, maybe late sixties, appears in the corner of my vision. Her features are kind, her eyes warm. "Thank God."

My lips part, but they're dry and cracked. "W–Water..."

"Oh! Yes, of course." She quickly pours a glass and holds it to my lips. I sip slowly, the cold water stinging its way down my throat.

I let out a shaky breath. "Where... am I?"

She sets the cup down, folding her hands in her lap. "You were in an accident. I found you unconscious by the roadside alone. No ID, nothing."

Panic rises in my chest. I try to remember. Anything. A name. A place. A face.

Nothing.

"I-I don't know who I am," I whisper, my voice cracking.

She reaches into her purse and carefully pulls out a delicate necklace, heart-shaped with an elegant design. It sparkles even under the dull hospital lights. She holds it in her palm before handing it to me.

"This was around your neck when I found you," she says gently. "There's an inscription on the back."

My fingers tremble as I turn it over.

N + A

Simple, intimate, Familiar.

The sight of it makes something squeeze inside my chest.

"You don't remember anything?" she asks carefully.

I shake my head. "Nothing. Just... darkness. Then this."

She smiles softly. "Well, for now, the doctors say you're stable. They just want to keep you for a few more days."

I look at her. "Why... Why did you help me?"

Maria hesitates, then shrugs a little. "I was passing through. I saw you there bleeding, unconscious and I couldn't just drive away. I brought you here and stayed. I didn't know who else would."

That night, as I try to sleep, something stirs. A rush of pain hits me behind my eyes, and for a moment, the world spins.

A flash

Rain.

A man's voice.

Warm lips on my forehead.

"I'll always love you, Ava..."

I jolt upright, breath catching in my throat. My heart pounds.

Ava.

Is that my name?

I was halfway through signing the last damn file when the office door creaked open without a knock, classic James.

"Of course you're still here," he drawled, sauntering in like he owned the place. "The overachiever husband of the year."

I leaned back in my chair, loosening my tie slightly. "Some of us actually work."

He smirked. "Work? Bro, you've been watching the clock for the past hour, waiting to bolt home to your wife and baby like a golden retriever."

I rolled my eyes, but a smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

"Don't even deny it," he added, settling into the chair across from me. "You're head over heels. You hear her name and your eyes get all soft. You used to be a cold bastard, now you're...." he paused, making an exaggerated heart sign over his chest. "A lovesick simp."

I snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."

He grinned. "It's actually cute. You and Ava... you made me believe love might not be a scam."

"Coming from a guy who dates women like they're trial shoes at a mall, I'm touched."

He laughed. "Well damn. Let a man heal."

I stood, grabbing my keys. "Look, when you meet someone like Ava... everything just changes. She makes life softer."

James raised a brow. "Wow. That deep? You really found your person, huh?"

I didn't hesitate. "Yeah. I did."

There was a pause a warm, understanding silence between friends.

He stood too. "Tell Ava I'll drop by this weekend. I miss my little teddy bear. Liam better still remember his Uncle James."

"He will," I said, already lighter just thinking about going home. "You're hard to forget."

We exchanged a lazy wave as I stepped into the elevator. Home. The thought warmed every inch of me. Ava's laugh. Liam's sleepy coos. That was all I needed tonight.

I turned on the radio and smiled to myself. The sky was golden, the roads nearly empty, a perfect evening. The soft ring of my phone interrupted the peace. I glanced at the screen.

Ava.

It was a voicemail.

Weird. She rarely sent voicemails.

Curious, I tapped play.

Her voice came through the speakers. It was soft. Shaky.

"Nathan... I don't even know how to start this."

"I've spent nights trying to find the right words, but there's never a good way to say goodbye."

"You didn't do anything wrong. You were perfect. Maybe too perfect. But this life... it's not for me. I feel suffocated, like I'm drowning and smiling through it."

"I know this will hurt you. God, I know it'll break you. But I have to leave. I can't keep living a lie, pretending I'm happy when I'm not."

"Don't come looking for me. Don't waste time trying to understand."

"Take care of Liam. Tell him I'm sorry... Tell him I love him in my own messed-up way. I hope he never becomes like me."

"I hope he becomes like you."

"Goodbye, Nathan."

The voicemail ended.

The silence afterward was suffocating.

My fingers clenched the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.

No. No. No.

I turned the car around sharply and raced home, heart pounding against my ribs like a war drum.

The second I burst through the door, I called out, "Ava?!"

Silence.

"Ava, please! What the hell is going on?!"

I searched everywhere, the living room, the kitchen. My voice echoed back at me in empty rooms. My chest tightened.

I bolted up the stairs. Our bedroom door was wide open.

Her side of the closet half empty. Some hangers dangled. Her favorite scarf was missing. The perfume I gave her for our anniversary gone.

I stood there, dizzy, heart slamming.

She really left.

She really left me.

I stumbled to the bathroom, looked in the mirror. My face pale, wide-eyed. I looked like a ghost. My mind refused to believe what my eyes saw.

I ran back into the hallway, half hoping I'd see her curled up on the couch, smiling, saying it was a sick joke. A prank. Anything but this.

But no Ava.

No laughter.

No scent of her lingering in the air.

Just silence.

And a cold kind of heartbreak I'd never known.

I walked into the nursery on numb legs. Liam was still in his crib, asleep. Peaceful. Innocent.

He didn't know his mother had vanished.

I sank to the floor beside him, staring.

Ava was gone.

But she'd left me with the most fragile, beautiful part of her.

I reached into the crib, pulled him to my chest. His tiny body curled into mine like he'd done a thousand times before.

I held him close, burying my face in his blanket, and I cried.

I sobbed like a man who had lost his future, his love, and his reason all at once.

"I don't know what I did wrong," I whispered brokenly. "I loved you, Ava. I gave you everything. Why wasn't that enough?"

Liam stirred and let out a sleepy coo, reminding me that I still had something to live for.

"I promise you, Liam," I whispered through clenched teeth, tears falling onto his onesie, "I won't let this destroy me. I'll give you everything. Even if it kills me."

And in that moment, in the stillness of that nursery, surrounded by memories and heartbreak...

A father was reborn from the ashes of a shattered man.

The air in Italy smelled different, warm and sweet, like ripe fruit and wildflowers carried on a lazy breeze. I sat quietly in the backseat of Maria's car, watching the countryside blur past my window. It had been almost a week since I'd woken up in that small hospital, confused and terrified, with no name, no memories, and no idea who I was.

Maria had been kind. Too kind, really. She hadn't owed me anything, but she took me in, gave me a place to stay, and when the doctors said there were no records to trace who I might be, she asked me to come with her to Italy. She said she couldn't leave me alone, not like that.

I'd said yes. Not because I trusted her entirely, I wasn't sure I trusted anyone, but because there was nowhere else to go. And something about the necklace she gave me, the heart-shaped pendant engraved with the initials "N & A", tugged at something deep inside me. A ghost of a feeling. A name I couldn't reach.

Now we were here, and as we pulled through the gates of her family home, an old villa tucked behind a grove of olive trees, I felt a strange pull in my chest. Not recognition, not quite. Just a heavy ache, like my soul was remembering something my mind still refused to.

"You okay?" Maria asked gently, her hand resting on the steering wheel.

I gave a small nod. "I think so."

She offered me a soft smile. "There's no rush, cara. Take it all one step at a time."

I stepped out of the car and followed her into the villa. The house was beautiful. Old, but full of character. Stone walls, arched doorways, soft rugs, and the scent of fresh herbs and lemon drifting in from the kitchen. But none of it felt familiar. I watched Maria's family greet me with warm smiles, her cousin Luca, her aunt Giulia and I smiled back, even though I felt like I was floating somewhere outside of my own body.

The days passed slowly. I tried to settle in. Maria gave me a room with a big window overlooking the garden. I started helping around the house, folding laundry, peeling tomatoes, learning how to bake their crusty loaves of bread. It was... peaceful. But in the quiet moments, when I was alone, the silence in my head roared. My name was a mystery. My past was a fog. And every time I closed my eyes, that same voice whispered through the darkness "I'll always love you, Ava."

Ava. Was that really my name? It felt right. Familiar. But it was all I had.

One afternoon, Maria poked her head into the kitchen where I was helping slice basil.

"We're expecting someone in a bit. An old family friend. He used to visit often when I was younger. He's very sweet, you'll like him."

I wiped my hands on a towel. "Should I go upstairs?"

"No, no," she said quickly. "You're part of the family now. Stay."

So I stayed. I lingered near the stairs, unsure of what to do with myself, smoothing down the hem of the linen dress Maria had lent me.

And then I heard the front door creak open.

Soft voices murmured something in Italian. Laughter. The clink of keys on a wooden table.

I stepped down the staircase slowly, meaning to greet whoever had come. But as I reached the last step and turned the corner, everything shifted.

The woman standing in the foyer was holding a ceramic dish wrapped in a tea towel. Her eyes met mine, and she froze.

The dish fell from her hands, crashing to the floor.

Her face went ghost-white.

"Luciana...?" she whispered, her voice trembling, eyes wide.

I blinked at her, stunned. "I-I'm sorry?"