ra didn''t even nce at Michael; all she could see was Dn.


    “Dn, let''s go home,” she said softly.


    But he stayed where he was, unmoving. After a long, tense pause, he finally pulled her into his arms, holding her tight. "I have something important I need to take care of," he murmured.


    She pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "What could possibly be more important than me? Didn''t I tell you to stop running yourself into the ground? Whatever your dad did, just leave it alone for now. Take a month off, please."


    He didn''t answer. He just pressed his face into her neck, his whole body radiating exhaustion and hurt.


    She could feel how shaken he was.


    "Dn-"


    "ra, I''m not lying to you. You and he... you''re both important to me. I have to do this. I need to find my father."


    He let her go, taking a few steps away before turning back. "You want your memories back, right? Maybe if you visit your father''s old house again, something wille back to you. ra, I''lle back as soon as I find him."


    She didn''t argue. She could see how desperate he was, how hard he was trying to hold himself together.<fn61c3> Th?s chapter is updated by Find?Novel</fn61c3>


    He almost never got like this, and she wasn''t about to leave him alone in that headspace.


    "Okay. I''ll wait for you. I''ll go check out that ce in the meantime. You have things you need to do. Just promise me-text me every day so I know you''re okay, and I''ll do the same. Let''s not make each other wait in silence, deal?"


    "Deal..."


    He barely got the word out before he turned and left.


    ra looked over at the rest of the Ferguson family. After all these years of Dn protecting them, not a single one had ever stood up for him. Ungrateful didn''t even begin to cover it.


    She didn''t know exactly what the old man had done, but if it had pushed Dn this far, the me was obvious.


    She headed out, got in her car, and drove straight toward Johnny''s old house.


    The old doctor had passed away a while ago. Ryan had searched the ce for clues not long ago, but came up empty. Still, if Dn said there was something there, she believed him.


    Hourster, ra pulled up outside the cottage. The ce was quiet, almost too quiet.


    She walked around to the backyard. Ryan had mentioned the doctor was buried here, and sure enough, there was a small mound tucked away in the grass.


    She knelt beside it, brushing aside the des of green that had sprung up with the spring. Thest time she''d been here, snow had nketed everything.


    She stared at the little inscription the grave, silent, her thoughts


    swirling A duffache started


    behind her eyes as fragments memory flickered just out of reach.  s


    The cottage itself was old and in, nothing stood out. Where could she even start looking for clues?


    She climbed in through a window, searching the rooms, tapping on walls and floorboards, checking every nook and cranny.


    But it was obvious. Someone had already ransacked the ce-probably those people so obsessed with her past.


    ra searched for over an hour, but came up empty.


    It wasn''t until the sun was sinking low that she wandered upstairs and noticed a patch of peeling paint on the wall. There, she saw something carved faintly into the ster.  s


    -Back to where it all began.


    It was her handwriting. Even with her memories in pieces, she knew it.


    She closed her eyes, pressing her fingers to her brow as shes of the past started to click into ce.


    She remembered visiting the old doctor-how gentle he always was, bringing him herbs, weeding around the little grave, even thinking about nting flowers there.


    Had she known, before the ident, that the real Bradford heiress was buried out back? Had she always known she was just pretending?


    ra sat on the back steps, staring into space. Suddenly, she got why Dn wanted her toe here.


    The memories tied to this ce were soft, peaceful, easy.


    Whenever she''d visited, it was just picking herbs or chatting to the little grave. Nothing heavy, nothing painful.


    ?


    If her ident or her


    amnesia-wasn''t really an ident,


    if someone had done this to her, maybe that exined why the hardest memories stayed locked. away, while the simple, happy ones came back first.  s


    So, after just a few hours here, those gentle memories started flooding in.


    But how had Dn known?


    She stared down at a lone de of grass by her feet.


    People always said she and Dn were never close, but he seemed to understand her better than anyone.


    There was only one exnation-he''d been watching over her for a long, long time.


    She took a shaky breath, her heart aching, the feeling bittersweet and impossible to ignore.