Chapter 2
Professor Martinez was thrilled, but quickly picked up on something wrong: “Wait, your voice sounds off. Are you crying? What’s going on?”
“I’m fine,” Stella managed, her voice all stuffy.
After hanging up, she pulled up the hospital on Google Maps and started walking.
Her head was spinning, her face felt like it was on fire, and everything was just a blur.
The wind dried her tears, leaving salty tracks on her cheeks.
Even feeling like total crap, memories kept flooding back.
Just a few months ago, she and Ryan were the couple everyone looked up to.
They’d met during a business collaboration. While everyone else was losing their minds, she and Ryan
clicked perfectly and landed the deal.
It was instant attraction, then full-on love.
Stella admired Ryan’s drive and ambition. Ryan loved how level-headed and steady she was.
People called them the power couple. They crushed every project together.
Their relationship was incredible. If Stella mentioned craving something, Ryan would drive an hour just to
get it for her.
He even learned to cook so she wouldn’t live off DoorDash, making her something different every night.
Ryan couldn’t stand seeing her upset about anything.
They just got each other same values, personalities that balanced perfectly. Both working toward marriage and their future together.
They were so in sync that in three whole years, they’d barely even argued.
Until a few months ago, when Stella found her birth parents and discovered she was actually a Reed – as in the Reeds who owned half of downtown.
That’s how Ryan met Ivy Reed, the family’s adopted daughter.
Stella thought they’d finally caught a break. Then Ryan had that stupid accident slipped down some stairs
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Chapter 2
at a construction site and got a major concussion.
He lost his memory. Of her. Just her.
Everything they’d worked for just… gone.
He forgot all their good times and somehow got it twisted that those memories were with Ivy instead.
From that day on, Ryan was basically Ivy’s puppy, running whenever she snapped her fingers.
All the love that used to be Stella’s? It all went to Ivy.
Stella tried showing him their old Instagram posts, their texts, anything to make him remember. Ryan thought she was making it all up.
He literally grabbed her phone and deleted their entire photo album while she watched.
The neurologist said Ryan’s memory probably wasn’t coming back. Ever.
But Stella held onto that one percent chance like an idiot.
She kept waiting, but Ryan just got nastier. Like he genuinely hated her guts.
He brought Ivy to all their old hangouts, took her on the Napa trip he and Stella had been saving for. Didn’t natter if Ivy was across town or across the state – one text and he was gone.
They’d make out right in front of her, posting couple pics on social like Stella didn’t exist.
Ryan had always loved hard, and watching him love someone else was torture.
She felt like she was drowning every damn day.
Seeing them together was like getting punched in the stomach over and over.
The walked in a fog until hospital lights cut through the darkness and her phone said she’d arrived.
Stella finally looked up.
Her face was soaked and she hadn’t even noticed.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She collapsed right there on the sidewalk and ugly cried.
She was done. Completely done.
This whole situation was hopeless and she couldn’t take another day.
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Chapter 2
Stella wiped her face with her sleeve and made up her mind.
Two weeks. She’d give herself two weeks to let go of Ryan for good.
