My Deathbed Wish: His True Love

didn't pray for my soul, but for a next life where he c

ll as I died. An

Last time, I forced his memories to return. It worked, but it drove Bianca to suicide, and he spent the res

had been

t rush to the hospital. I walked into his parents' office, slid my

e," I said. "I wo

I would gra

pte

e's

shattering his promise of forever the moment he lost his memory. After ten years of a marriage as cold as a tomb, I was diagnosed with ALS. For seven years, he cared for me with a meticulousness born of guilt, not love. On my deathbed, he held my ha

en, I

art monitor. The world swam back into focus. I was in a hospit

ide table. A message from E

a small town hospital three hu

ack, five years after he' d gone missing and been pres

could barely type my reply. I had rushed to that hospital, my h

hilling calm s

: Jack' s face, etched with a mixture of grief and relief as

was a bitter acid in my throa

y. Instead, I pressed the

voice steady, betraying none of the turmoil inside me. "Specifi

ALS? Miss Daniels, you' re only twen

I said, my smile n

t had been realized a decade later in my past life. A

uarters. Edwardo and Henrietta Day, the couple who had been more like parents

It' s a miracle!" Henrietta

ce. We' ll get his memory back," Edwa

f photos, grainy, taken by the private investigator I' d hired. They showed Jack, alive and well, his arm wrapped protectively around a pretty, dark-haire

was my medi

engagement," I anno

miles v

s voice was sharp. "This is just a temporary se

, pushing the photos toward them. "He has a new

th tears. "But you two...

ten, maybe fifteen good years. After that..." I let the sentence hang in the air, a specter

o that small town, blinded by love and possession. I' d found Jack living in a tiny apartment above a garage with Bianca Be

, would be the key. When it wasn' t, I arranged for the most aggressive form of memory recall the

dal wave, Bian

a corporate dynasty and had a fiancée he' d lov

s his penance. His care for me in my f

he tears that threatened to fall. I would not m

ce," Edwardo pleaded, his compo

tening. "But not as his fiancée. Not as his f

e, I didn't drive the three hundred miles in a f

. When she saw me, a flicker of panic crossed her face. She knew who I was. In my first life, she had seen my pictu

she asked, her chin ju

ue I had dreamed of for five years, landed on me. There was no recognition. Only a cold

nfirmation. My heart, already broken,

ce surprisingly even. "I

I don' t know what yo

ently. "I' m not here to cause trouble.

t me, stunned

Bianca. They' ve accepted your relationship. They want to me

from my lips,

xture of disbelief and dawni

ff. I have my own life to live. Jack has his. I' m just here as hi

e to Bianca, whose entire demeanor had changed. The defensive

e can go! Together!" She th

of apology in his eyes. "I' m sorry. Fo

ned his memory and the full weight of his cruelty settled upon him. Back then,

d to promise the

" I said, my voice a whisper. "Yo

to be our home. As we pulled up the long, winding driveway, I looked at Jack in the rea

, to the world, I introduced

ke swallowing glass. "Jack always promised he' d find a nice

ayed along. "That' s righ

longer his love, his fiancée, his destiny. I was an accessory. A