Revenge In Bloom

Stolen Memories

Rose narrowed her eyes, a flash of intensity disrupting her composed exterior. The innocence she wore like a veil slipped away for a moment, revealing a sharper edge beneath.

“What do you mean you'd like to think?” Her voice was quick, edged with the kind of suspicion that was usually absent from her cheerful whimsies.

Theo's jaw clenched imperceptibly. He seemed to take her words as a personal blow, something piercing deep enough to unravel the practiced calm he tried so hard to maintain, especially in front of her. The tension in his body betrayed his anxiety, coiling tight until it almost made him tremble. His boyish face hardened, and she could see the exact moment when his resolve broke.

“Because neither of us was able to save you from being assaulted the second time,” he said through gritted teeth, words roughened by frustration and guilt. “So the baby could also be that bastard's.”

His words struck her like a fist. She flinched as if hit by a physical force, the impact rippling through her. She stiffened in a way that was different from Theo's all-consuming tension—hers was more like an instinctive retreat, a protective shell closing in. Her arms wrapped around her stomach, an unconscious gesture that seemed to cradle both her vulnerability and her defiance in the same motion.

But she didn’t argue. She didn’t deny it. The absence of protest spoke volumes, a silent acknowledgment that she knew might devastate him. She just nodded, eyes cast downward, the motion almost imperceptible.

“Nothing a simple DNA test won’t solve,” she murmured, her voice dull and muted, like the words were drained of their usual brightness.

Theo exhaled harshly, the sound filled with a mix of relief and resignation. He looked at her with deep concern, his earlier anger dissolved into something softer yet equally desperate. He reached for her hand again, this time with a touch that was markedly changed. Gentler. Hesitant but full of unspoken promises. Like he was trying to hold onto her before she slipped away again, before the truth drew yet another irreparable line between them.

“If the baby isn’t mine,” he said quietly, a tremor lacing his words despite his efforts to sound supportive. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb in slow, soothing circles, as if the rhythm could comfort them both. “I’ll support you… if you decide to get rid of it.”

Rose looked up at him, her wide green eyes clouded but steady, full of emotions too complex to easily unravel. She shook her head slowly, the motion deliberate and filled with silent conviction.

“No,” she said, her voice firm yet carrying an undercurrent of vulnerability that almost masked her determination. “Even if it is a result of the accident… I can’t.”

She looked away again, her gaze drifting to some point in the distance, eyes unfocused but her words crystalline in their sincerity.

“I think… I already love it.”

The statement fell between them with a quiet finality. A whisper that seemed to echo louder and longer than any protest could have—a whisper that left Theo momentarily speechless. The room felt unbearably still, as if the world outside had faded away and nothing existed except their entangled fears and fragile hopes.

“Of course,” Theo said with a gentle nod. He sat carefully on the edge of the bed beside her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ve always been there for you, Rose, and I always will be.”

He reached out and tilted her chin up with careful fingers, his eyes soft but serious as he lowered his voice.

“I still love you,” he repeated, determined and unwavering, each word a promise. “And I’ll love this baby like my own… no matter the outcome.”

Before she could form a reply, before the emotions swirling between them could take shape, he leaned in and kissed her, pulling her into a world where nothing else seemed to exist. His lips were warm, insistent, a force of nature filled with something intangible and raw. It was more than love. It was longing, fierce and unrelenting. It was a need to possess, to bind them together no matter what the future held. It was guilt, lingering and unresolved, a shadow of all the ways he had failed her and himself.

And maybe, beneath it all, there was fear, a gnawing uncertainty of whether he would be enough for her, for this child, for the future he so desperately wanted to claim.

Rose stiffened, startled by the depth and ferocity of his need. The kiss was more than an embrace; it was a battle, a plea, a surrender. Her mind raced, caught between the urge to push him away and the desire to pull him closer, to lose herself in the moment’s heat and abandon.

Slowly, she closed her eyes and chose the latter, letting herself be drawn into the whirlwind of silence and sensation. But amidst the ache and confusion, under the layers of emotion and history, there was something that didn’t settle quite right. A quiet dissonance. An unresolved chord.

Not yet.

The seismic pull of their kiss was interrupted by a sudden vibration, a phone call, insistent and jarring, from somewhere near the bedside table. Theo pulled back, his breath ragged as both their hearts pounded. The name flickered across the screen. Sterling.

Clearing his throat with a hesitant rasp, Theo broke their charged silence at last. “I have to take this,” he said, the softness in his voice barely disguising the reluctance in every syllable. The words felt like an apology, a temporary surrender to the intrusion.

He stepped back from her, the distance between them growing with each careful stride, and retreated into the far corner of the hospital room. The space felt cavernous, unnaturally spacious with the sudden emptiness that his absence created beside her. As Theo answered his phone, he glanced back at her, his eyes flickering with concern, as if afraid she might vanish in his brief absence.

His words, though meant for someone else, remained low but firm, a testament to his need to be both present and elsewhere. Business, always business. Even now.

Rose tried to follow his conversation, but her mind, already swirling with the aftermath of their exchange, refused to settle on anything concrete. Her thoughts drifted, weightless and unmoored.

Theo’s baby… The words echoed through her, relentless and haunting. She never would have guessed he’d even be a possibility, not in the fractured state of aftermath she found herself in. For years she had pined for him, endlessly, hopelessly, and now here he was, impossibly close, claiming that they were meant to be, that they had been something real all along.

And just when she finally had him, she’d lost everything. A trauma. A blackout. A baby.

The universe had a twisted sense of humor. Its cruelty knew no bounds, she thought bitterly, as she watched Theo nod intently along to whatever was being said on the other end.

She was still lost, adrift in fragments of memory and disbelief, when a phrase cut sharply through the haze, drawing her back.

“No. I don’t think Rose will be able to start on the agreed date. I’m with her now, and she hasn’t been awake for very long. She’s still dealing with side effects from the head injury.”

The head injury. Was that all they thought it was? She almost laughed, a hollow sound that stayed trapped in her throat. This was the life they’d wanted for her, wasn’t it? Everything she tried to escape.

Theo briefly turned toward her, covering the mic with one hand. “Is it okay if they move your desk?” he asked, his voice hushed but carrying the weight of a thousand unspoken words. “Since we’ll have to delay your start date, they need the space for something else.”

“My desk?” Rose repeated faintly, the words foreign and distant on her lips. Then it clicked, like a puzzle piece sliding seamlessly into place.

Oh… right.

Theo was the heir to his family's company. Wellington Forgeworks International. And he’d asked her to work for him. She was supposed to run the European office for them. It had been a huge deal at the time—she remembered that much now, the announcement, the way everyone acted so surprised. How could she have forgotten? How could she forget any of this?

“So I said yes,” she whispered to herself. To the job, to him, to everything.

Looking up at him, she nodded slowly. “Yeah… it’s fine if they move me. I don’t even remember the office anyway.”

Theo gave her a small, reassuring smile and turned back around, continuing his conversation with renewed focus. As he spoke, Rose leaned back against the pillows, staring up at the ceiling with an intensity that seemed to burn through it.

Why can I remember him offering the job but not saying yes? Not the pendant? Not the moment it all changed?

She reached again for the charm resting against her collarbone, thumb brushing the cool metal as if willing it to reveal whatever secrets it held. There were still so many pieces missing, like a jigsaw puzzle with its most critical sections lost and scattered beyond reach.

And something told her the biggest one was still out there… bleeding on a stretcher and nowhere to be found.

Unconsciously, Rose let her eyes drift closed, submerging herself deeper into thought, deeper into the ocean of what was and wasn’t.