𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉:
⋆✴︎˚｡⋆  second chance ➺ amnesia ➺ childhood best friends ➺ failing marriage ➺ then and now chapters ➺ forced proximity ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

❝ I knew how to let loose. I knew how to have a good time. It just so happened that my good time didn’t involve booze; it involved fiction. ❞

❝ As a therapist myself, I could’ve gone into all the reasons why he was the way he’d been, but just because people had reasons for the way they were didn’t mean that they had excuses. I had the firm belief that if we excused people from their actions due to their personal traumas, we’d end up with a domino effect of passing on trauma to every single person. Even with his reasons, they didn’t excuse Jack for his harmful ways. ❞

❝ I figured women who lost so much of themselves to a man deserved happiness more than most—no matter how it looked to others. ❞

❝ The problem with abuse and control from one’s partner is that often you can’t see all the warning signs until you look back on them. ❞

❝ That’s the issue with advice: it’s easier to give it to others than to give it to yourself. ❞

❝ After the burn to my hand, I did exactly what I did every time Henry had an episode. I went on as if nothing had happened. Though, truthfully, each time something happened, it felt as if a piece of me was fading. ❞

There once was a man who loved me, until he forgot every memory we’ve ever shared…

Gabriel Sinclair would forever be my first. My first best friend, my first kiss, my first love…and my first heartbreak. The accident that nearly took his life ripped the memory of me from his grasp—and for the last decades, I’ve let the guilt of that one terrible night keep us apart.

It took me years to make peace with the fact that he would no longer be in my life, so when he shows up as the architect for my new home, my world’s tossed upside down. Now, I’m trapped in a loveless marriage, raising a child, while Gabriel stirs up feelings I thought long buried. It feels like my soul is waking up after years of being in a deep slumber—and my controlling husband will do whatever it takes to keep us apart.

I know I should push Gabriel away to protect him from the shadows surrounding me. Yet, I can’t deny the hope that blooms whenever he’s near—the chance that he might remember me, that we could reclaim the chapters of our story that we’ve lost. 

Nothing good could come from us, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if this time…he stayed. 

There once was a man who loved me… And now he’s my only hope for tomorrow.

𝒢𝑜𝑜𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓈 | 𝒜𝓂𝒶𝓏𝑜𝓃