Hello readers! I wanted to tell you all that I am ending this book soon 🥲 Yeah you read right... Actually I also don't want to end it but I am writing a new book which will be in printed form and not online. I hope that you all would support me. The theme of my new book will be Crime , mystery and thriller. I will also upload details here and I hope you would love it.
Love you readers 💗✨️
~~ From your clumsy author 😭
(Keifer's POV)
The morning light filtered through the large windows of the guest bedroom, casting long shadows across the unfamiliar walls. I opened my eyes and reached out my hand out of habit, expecting to feel the soft warmth of Jay's skin. My fingers met only cold, empty sheets.
A sharp ache pierced my chest. For the past few years, waking up meant turning over to see Jay sleeping peacefully beside me, her breathing slow and her hair messy on the pillow. Now, I was in a completely different room, separated from my own wife by a long hallway and a wall of forgotten memories.
I sat up on the edge of the mattress and buried my face in my hands. The silence of the house felt heavy. It hurt. It hurt more than any punch I had delivered to Collin Venas in the secret base the night before. But I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down.
"Six days," I whispered to the empty room. "It is only a matter of six days. You can handle this, Keifer. You have to handle this for her."
I stood up and shook off the sadness. I could not let Jay see me looking down or worried. She needed me to be strong, to be her anchor while her mind was lost in the dark. I walked over to the closet, took off my sleeping clothes, and changed into a pair of comfortable grey sweatpants and a soft black t-shirt.
Leaving the bedroom, I walked quietly down the stairs. The house was dead silent, the servants moving like ghosts in the background so they wouldn't disturb us. I walked straight into the large kitchen. Cooking had always been my way of relaxing, and more importantly, it was my way of taking care of Jay.
I decided to bake a fresh breakfast from scratch. I pulled out flour, butter, sugar, and yeast. My hands moved quickly and smoothly, knowing the exact measurements without even looking at a recipe. I rolled out the dough, folding it gently with layers of rich butter to make croissants. While the oven was heating up, I carefully shaped the pastry into perfect little crescents and placed them on a baking sheet.
As the croissants baked, filling the kitchen with a warm, sweet, and buttery smell, I started working on the drinks. I poured fresh milk into a small pot and heated it over a low flame. I added high-quality cocoa powder and thick dark chocolate pieces, stirring slowly until the liquid became rich, smooth, and hot. I prepared two large mugs of the hot chocolate, knowing exactly how sweet Jay liked hers.
Next, I turned to the counter to make something special. I mixed cream, sugar, and vanilla extract together. Jay loved ice cream more than anything in the world. It was her favorite comfort food. I poured the sweet mixture into a metal bowl and placed it in the freezer to set. A small spark of hope flared up in my heart. Maybe when she saw the ice cream later, a spark would light up in her brain. Maybe she would remember her late-night ice cream robbery on the kitchen floor.
Just as I was putting the bowl away, I heard soft footsteps on the tiled floor.
I turned around and saw Jay walking into the kitchen. She looked beautiful but fragile, wearing an oversized sweater that swallowed her small frame. In her hands, she was holding a heavy wooden photo frame against her chest.
She stopped a few feet away from me. Her large eyes looked up into mine, filled with confusion and a deep sadness. She slowly turned the photo frame around so I could see it.
It was our engagement photo. We were standing in a beautiful hall. I had my arms wrapped tightly around her waist, lifting her slightly off the ground, and she was laughing wildly at the camera, showing off the sparkling diamond ring on her finger. It was the happiest day of our lives.
Jay pointed a trembling finger at the frame. "Keifer..." her voice cracked slightly. "Are we... are we actually engaged? Are you really my fiancé?"
Seeing her ask about her own life broke my heart into pieces. I wanted to scream at the world for doing this to her, but I forced a soft smile onto my face.
Jay looked down at the photo again, staring at her own laughing face. She closed her eyes tightly, and her eyebrows came together in deep pain. She pressed the palms of her hands against the sides of her head.
"Ah," she groaned, her voice tight. "My head. It hurts so much."
"Hey, hey, stop," I said quickly, moving in and gently taking the photo frame from her hands, placing it safely on the kitchen counter. "Don't try to force it. Let it go."
But the tears were already spilling over her eyelashes, tracing wet paths down her pale cheeks. She looked up at me, her eyes red and full of sorrow.
"Why can't I remember then?" she sobbed, her shoulders shaking. "If we loved each other this much, why is my brain completely blank? Why can't I remember you, Keifer?"
I reached out and softly took her small hands in mine. They were freezing cold. "It's okay, sweetheart. It is just the effect of the accident. The doctors said it will take time."
"No, it's not okay!" Jay cried out, pulling her hands back and hiding her face in them. "I am just a burden to you. Look at you, you are looking after me, cooking for me, sleeping in a different room just to make me feel safe. You deserve someone who can love you back, someone who actually knows who you are. You don't deserve a broken person like me."
Hearing her call herself a burden made a wave of fierce protection wash over me. I stepped forward, completely ignoring the distance now, and wrapped my strong arms around her. I pulled her tight against my chest, letting her bury her face into my black t-shirt. She cried openly, her tears soaking through the fabric.
"Listen to me very carefully, Jay," I said, my voice deep, steady, and full of absolute certainty. "You are not a burden. You could never be a burden to me. You are my whole world. In just a few days, you are going to remember everything. I know it. I can feel it in my heart. Trust me on this. But right now, you need to promise me you won't pressurize your brain. Don't fight the dark. Just let yourself rest."
I held her for a long time, rubbing her back in slow circles until her heavy sobs turned into small, quiet sniffs. She nodded against my chest, agreeing to my words.
I pulled back slightly and wiped the tears from her face with my thumbs. Her eyes were still sad, and I knew I had to do something right now to change her mood. I couldn't let her stay in this dark place.
I looked around the kitchen quickly and saw a thick black permanent marker sitting on the note counter near the fridge. An absolute ridiculous idea popped into my head. I didn't care if I looked stupid; I just wanted to see her smile.
"Stay right here," I told her.
Jay blinked through her wet eyelashes, looking confused.
I grabbed the permanent marker, took off the cap, and walked over to the mirror on the kitchen wall. Without hesitating for a single second, I pressed the black marker against my clean-shaved face. I carefully drew a thick, long, curly mustache right above my upper lip, curling the ends upward toward my nose.
I remember our HVIS days! She drew the moustache on my face when I was sleeping. What the days they were!
Then, I grabbed a white cooking apron from the hook on the wall and tied it tightly around my waist. The croissants had just finished baking, so I used an oven mitt to pull the tray out. I placed two warm, golden, flaky croissants onto a beautiful white plate and picked up the two mugs of hot chocolate.
I turned around to face Jay. I puffed out my chest, held the breakfast plate high in the air with one hand, and twisted my fake mustache with the other hand. I began to move around the kitchen, waving my arms wildly and mimicking a chaotic, loud Italian chef.
"Ah! Mamma mia!" I shouted in a terrible, loud Italian accent, stomping my feet dramatically on the floor. "The breakfast is ready for the beautiful signorina! The kitchen is a big mess, but the food is magnificent!"
Jay's eyes went wide. She stared at my thick black marker mustache, then at my ridiculous apron, and then at my wild hand movements.
For a second, there was total silence. Then, a small sound escaped her lips. A second later, she burst out into a loud, bright, beautiful laugh. It was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard in my entire life. She covered her mouth with her hands, her shoulders shaking, but this time with pure joy instead of sadness.
I marched over to the kitchen island table where she was sitting, acting completely serious despite the marker on my face. I placed the warm plate of croissants and the hot chocolate right in front of her. I leaned down, bowed deeply from the waist, and gave her a grand flourish with my arms.
"Bon appétit, my lady!" I said loudly, still using the silly accent.
Jay couldn't control herself. She laughed so hard that new tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. She stood up from her barstool and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly.
"Thank you, Keifer," she whispered into my ear, her voice full of warmth now. "Thank you for making me laugh. I promise you, I will try my absolute best to remember everything. I won't give up."
A feeling of pure happiness rushed through my veins. I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her close. "That is all I ask for, Jay."
We sat down at the kitchen island together. The heavy cloud of sadness was completely gone, replaced by the warm smell of sweet pastry and hot chocolate. We began to eat, sharing the freshly baked croissants. They were perfectly flaky on the outside and incredibly soft on the inside.
Jay took a sip of her hot chocolate, a small mustache of chocolate foam forming on her upper lip, matching mine. She wiped it away and smiled warmly at me.
"Wow, Keifer," Jay said, shaking her head in amazement as she chewed another piece of the buttery croissant. "This is incredible. You are literally a professional chef. How do you know how to bake like this?"
I opened my mouth to reply, but before a single word could come out, Jay's movement stopped completely.
The smile froze on her face. Her fork stayed halfway between her plate and her mouth. Her eyes went completely wide, staring straight ahead into space, but she wasn't looking at me anymore. She was looking at something inside her own mind.
My heart skipped a beat. I sat perfectly still, holding my breath, terrified that if I moved or made a sound, I would break whatever magic was happening right now.
"Jay?" I called out very softly, my voice barely a whisper. "Are you okay?"
Slowly, the light in her eyes changed. The deep fog of confusion seemed to part for a tiny second. A look of recognition and pure shock washed over her face. She dropped her fork onto the plate with a loud clink.
She turned her head slowly to look at me, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Keifer..." she breathed out, her voice trembling, but this time it wasn't from sadness. "Keifer, you... you used to make me breakfast every single day. Every single morning, I would wake up, and you would be in the kitchen cooking for me."
My hands started to shake. "Jay, do you... do you remember that?"
"Yes!" she shouted, suddenly jumping off her barstool. She began to bounce up and down on her feet, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "And every time you gave me the food, I would look at you and say, 'You are my favorite chef!' I used to call you 'chef' every single time!"
She clapped her hands together, a massive smile stretching across her face. "I remembered it! Keifer, I actually remembered this thing! It just popped into my head when I tasted the food!"
A huge wave of joy, relief, and intense excitement crashed over me. I stood up so fast my chair almost tipped over backward. I began to clap my hands loudly in excitement, matching her energy completely. I couldn't stop the massive grin from spreading across my face, stretching the drawn-on marker mustache.
"Yes! You did it!" I yelled, laughing loudly. "You remembered, Jay! That is exactly what you used to say to me every single morning!"
I stepped forward and grabbed her hands, swinging her around in a small circle in the middle of the kitchen. My hopes, which had been crushed and bruised after the car crash and the terrible news of her memory loss, suddenly grew a thousand times stronger.
The dark wall in her mind wasn't permanent. It was cracking. The love we shared and the old routines we built were too strong to be wiped away by a simple accident.
"See?" I told her, looking deep into her happy eyes. "I told you it would come back. We just have to take it one little piece at a time."
Jay nodded eagerly, her eyes bright and alive. "One piece at a time."
We sat back down to finish our breakfast, but everything felt different now. The silence was gone, replaced by loud talking, shared laughter, and a burning hope for the future. Six days suddenly didn't feel like a long time at all. I knew, without a single doubt, that my wifey was coming back to me completely.
Now I can't wait to give her ice - cream at night!