Love's Toxic Echo

Love's Toxic Echo

Gavin

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I woke in a hospital bed, my head throbbing, a void where seven years of my life should be. Doctors explained it was retrograde amnesia, specifically targeting emotional connections. My best friend, Liam, looked devastated when I asked, "Cassie? Who's Cassie?" Apparently, she was everything to me for seven long years, a love so deep it was almost painful. Yet, when I finally encountered this forgotten love, Cassie Vanderbilt, she was shockingly cold. She showed no concern for my accident, only annoyance, casting me aside for her ex-fiancé, Damian Pierce. Her dismissive eyes and cutting words instantly confirmed her indifference, echoing the tales of unrequited devotion from a private blog I found. She publicly validated Damian over me, humiliated me at a party, and even threw coffee in my face. When a fire erupted, she inexplicably chose to save Damian, leaving me to the flames. And later, when Damian brazenly stole my revolutionary tech project, AuraConnect, she stood by him, publicly discrediting me. Each fresh injury, inflicted by a woman I no longer remembered, compounded my confusion and pain. How could I have so desperately loved someone utterly devoid of compassion, even for a victim of severe memory loss? The weight of her constant betrayals, for a past I couldn't access, was a sickening burden. This constant cycle of humiliation left me bewildered, questioning the very essence of my forgotten self. I knew then: this forgotten past was toxic, and I would consciously choose to leave it behind. I fled Boston for Austin, embracing a clean slate and finding genuine happiness with Maya. But just as I started to build a new life, the darkness of my past, in the form of Damian and Cassie's schemes, roared back. They came for me, forcing a final, brutal confrontation that tore open old wounds and revealed a truth far more agonizing than I could have imagined.

Introduction

I woke in a hospital bed, my head throbbing, a void where seven years of my life should be.

Doctors explained it was retrograde amnesia, specifically targeting emotional connections.

My best friend, Liam, looked devastated when I asked, "Cassie? Who's Cassie?"

Apparently, she was everything to me for seven long years, a love so deep it was almost painful.

Yet, when I finally encountered this forgotten love, Cassie Vanderbilt, she was shockingly cold.

She showed no concern for my accident, only annoyance, casting me aside for her ex-fiancé, Damian Pierce.

Her dismissive eyes and cutting words instantly confirmed her indifference, echoing the tales of unrequited devotion from a private blog I found.

She publicly validated Damian over me, humiliated me at a party, and even threw coffee in my face.

When a fire erupted, she inexplicably chose to save Damian, leaving me to the flames.

And later, when Damian brazenly stole my revolutionary tech project, AuraConnect, she stood by him, publicly discrediting me.

Each fresh injury, inflicted by a woman I no longer remembered, compounded my confusion and pain.

How could I have so desperately loved someone utterly devoid of compassion, even for a victim of severe memory loss?

The weight of her constant betrayals, for a past I couldn't access, was a sickening burden.

This constant cycle of humiliation left me bewildered, questioning the very essence of my forgotten self.

I knew then: this forgotten past was toxic, and I would consciously choose to leave it behind.

I fled Boston for Austin, embracing a clean slate and finding genuine happiness with Maya.

But just as I started to build a new life, the darkness of my past, in the form of Damian and Cassie's schemes, roared back.

They came for me, forcing a final, brutal confrontation that tore open old wounds and revealed a truth far more agonizing than I could have imagined.

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My world revolved around Jax Harding, my older brother's captivating rockstar friend. From sixteen, I adored him; at eighteen, I clung to his casual promise: "When you're 22, maybe I'll settle down." That offhand comment became my life's beacon, guiding every choice, meticulously planning my twenty-second birthday as our destiny. But on that pivotal day in a Lower East Side bar, clutching my gift, my dream exploded. I overheard Jax' s cold voice: "Can't believe Savvy's showing up. She' s still hung up on that stupid thing I said." Then the crushing plot: "We' re gonna tell Savvy I' m engaged to Chloe, maybe even hint she' s pregnant. That should scare her off." My gift, my future, slipped from my numb fingers. I fled into the cold New York rain, devastated by betrayal. Later, Jax introduced Chloe as his "fiancée" while his bandmates mocked my "adorable crush"-he did nothing. As an art installation fell, he saved Chloe, abandoning me to severe injury. In the hospital, he came for "damage control," then shockingly shoved me into a fountain, leaving me to bleed, calling me a "jealous psycho." How could the man I loved, who once saved me, become this cruel and publicly humiliate me? Why was my devotion seen as an annoyance to be brutally extinguished with lies and assault? Was I just a problem, my loyalty met with hatred? I would not be his victim. Injured and betrayed, I made an unshakeable vow: I was done. I blocked his number and everyone connected to him, severing ties. This was not an escape; this was my rebirth. Florence awaited, a new life on my terms, unburdened by broken promises.

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