The coffee beans scattered everywhere, but Nico offered nothing but a cold, remorseless smile. "Oops. My hand slipped. Please clean that up, Ms. Mancuso."

I didn't argue. I went to the back, grabbed a broom, and began to sweep.

Just as I was about to push a pile into the dustpan, Nico kicked them, sending the beans rolling even further across the floor.

I looked up, confused. "Signore, please. If you could just take a seat, I can finish cleaning this up quickly."

He scrutinized me again, but this time, a flicker of pity softened his gaze. "Elena, this isn't you. The woman I knew was sharp and vibrant, and wouldn't stand for even a hint of disrespect. If someone had done this to you back then, you would have flipped the table on them without a second thought. Yet, you don't even get angry now? Why?"

My fingers tightened around the broom handle.

He was talking about the past again.

I looked at him in confusion. "Signore, do you know me?"

Nico paused, his throat bobbing as he looked at me with a searing intensity.

"The first time we spoke was at your birthday ball. You were wearing a dark green dress and that pearl necklace your mamma left you. When you walked down those stairs, every eye in the room was on you. But you only had eyes for me.

"After we got together, we started planning our escape. You said your family would never allow us to be together, and you couldn't stand the war between our families anymore. You told me you wanted to go somewhere where there was no gunfire, and we chose a town in Alpen."

Small town. Fresh flowers. Laughter.

I didn't know where the images were coming from, but they surfaced in my mind, blurry and fleeting.

Nico watched me closely, searching my face for an answer. "Do you remember any of that?"

The harder I tried to grab the memories, the harder the eraser in my head worked to wipe them away. The pain in my skull intensified.

I had to give up. "I'm sorry. I really don't."

Nico stared at me, his eyes swirling with hatred and mockery, yet something beneath the surface seemed to be breaking.

He whispered, almost to himself, "It's been three years. When I woke up in that hospital bed, Bianca told me you had run away."

Bianca? Was that the woman holding his arms yesterday?

His gaze lingered on my face for a moment before he looked away. "I thought about looking for you."

He swallowed hard. "But I asked myself, if I found you, would I kill you? Or would I take you back to make your life a living hell?"

Nico let out a short, hollow laugh that sounded more like a sob. "Then I thought… you knew I couldn't swim, yet you pushed me overboard anyway. You must have loathed me. I thought that it would be better for both of us if you stayed hidden forever. Yet here I am, standing right in front of you. Fate is a cruel joke!"

He began to clap slowly and laugh loudly. "Elena, I won't forgive you. Since you want to play this game, let's see how long you can keep up the act."

He turned and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving me to finish sweeping in a daze.

During my break, I opened my memo app and typed, "The man named Nico seems to know me from a long time ago."

I was in the middle of sweeping when the restaurant door was flung open.

It was Bianca, the woman who had been clinging to Nico's arm yesterday.

"Elena."

She marched in on her high heels, her voice sharp and menacing. "Nico was just here, wasn't he?"

"Signora, would you like to—"

Before I could finish speaking, Bianca snatched the broom from my hands and hurled it onto the floor. "Nico isn't here anymore. Who are you putting on this amnesia act for?"

She strode over to my workstation and began ripping off the sticky notes I used for my daily routines. She read them aloud, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Is this your new trick for seducing Nico? Playing the helpless amnesiac?

"Do you honestly think if you play pretend and say you don't remember, he'll just pity you and come crawling back? Don't be pathetic. He just thinks you're disgusting."

Bianca shredded the notes into tiny pieces and let the scraps flutter from her fingers.

"Please, stop it," I said, my voice trembling.

But she didn't stop. With every note she tore, she spat out another insult.

My body moved faster than my mind. I rushed to her side. "Please, stop! I need those notes to do my job."

Bianca shoved me hard, sending me sprawling onto the floor. She looked down at me like I was a stray dog. "Oh, now you're begging? Too late! When you pushed Nico into the sea three years ago, did you ever imagine you'd end up like this?"

She crouched and gripped my chin, forcing me to look her in the eye. "Nico is mine. If you ever see him again, I'll tear up more than just paper next time."

Her nails dug into my skin. The pain was so sharp that tears welled up uncontrollably.

Then, a headache set in, and my vision blurred.

Bianca pulled her phone from her pocket and snapped a photo of me. The flash burned into my eyes.

"Look at yourself. What would your family think if they saw you now? Oh, I forgot. The Mancuso family doesn't even exist anymore, do they?" She laughed out loud.

Suddenly, she let go of me, and her tone shifted. She sounded gentle, almost concerned. "Elena, if you're in trouble, just say so. You know Nico. He's always had a soft spot for you."

I looked up, tears streaming down my face.

That was when I heard a second voice. "Bianca, what's going on here?"

Nico looked at us.

Bianca's expression instantly changed. Her eyes turned red as if she were about to cry. "Nico, I just came by to see if I could help. But she didn't seem to want me here. She even tried to call the police on us for causing a scene."

I looked down at the phone in my hand.

In the chaos, I had somehow dialed the emergency number Leo had set up for me.

Bianca walked over to Nico and took his arm, her voice hitching. "Let's just go. She clearly doesn't want to see us."

Nico gave me a long look, said nothing, and followed her out.

As they reached the door, the police arrived, asking who had called and what the problem was.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't remember the details of the last few minutes.

Bianca took the opportunity to spin the story. She told the officers that I was the one who had pushed Nico into the sea years ago and that she was his savior.

She claimed they had just come for a meal and happened to run into me. They didn't do anything to me, and it was all a misunderstanding on my part.

She stepped close to me and pinched my arm hard.

The pain in my head became unbearable, and I couldn't force out a single word.

By the time I woke up again, the air was thick with the salty scent of the sea.

I pushed myself up and found myself in the middle of the ocean.

"You're awake?" A woman crouched in front of me. Her expression was gentle, almost as if she were tending to a sick friend.

I stared at her face, desperately trying to find some shred of information from my mind.

"Nico, she's awake."

The man glanced at me briefly before looking away.

"You passed out," the woman said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear. Her touch was light, like she was soothing a frightened cat.

"You didn't look well, so we brought you out here for some fresh air. We thought it might help you remember."

I flinched away from her hand. "Why am I on a boat?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she walked over to the man named Nico and naturally took his hand. "Nico, I told you. Doctors call this situational reenactment therapy. Bringing her back to the scene of the accident to relive the experience will make her remember."

Nico remained silent, and she took his silence as permission.

She marched back over, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me up from the deck.

The boat swayed beneath my feet. Every step felt like walking on clouds.

My body began to shake uncontrollably. "Please, no further. I can't swim."

"You used to be a certified diver." Nico's voice drifted from behind me.

"I really—"

Before I could finish speaking, the world flipped upside down.

Water rushed in from every direction, flooding my nose and burning a trail from my throat down into my lungs.

I thrashed at the water, kicking and gasping for air.

I repeated these instinctive movements until someone hoisted me out of the water, like I was a half-drowned cat.

I collapsed on the deck, coughing up seawater.

"Maybe that was too sudden," the woman said, her voice laced with a hint of concern. "Let's try again. We'll take it slow this time. It might trigger something."

One of her hands hung at my side, just out of Nico's sight.

Then a faint prick of pain shot through my arm. Numbness spread from there, slowly creeping up to my shoulder, to my neck, and down to my feet.

I was thrown into the sea again.

I tried with everything I had to move my limbs, but my body was unresponsive. I felt myself sinking, inch by inch. Eventually, the water closed over the top of my head.

The sunlight above became a blurry, wobbling orb of light. As it drifted further and further away, the world grew dark.

I tried to scream for help, but opening my mouth only let more water in.

I thought I was dying.

Just as my consciousness began to slip away, I heard someone shouting.

Suddenly, someone was pulling me upward. "Elena! Wake up!"

Someone was patting my face. "Look at me! Breathe! Come on!"

"Oh, look at the hero saving the damsel in distress," the woman mocked. "Elena, is this the new fiancé you found after dumping Nico? How touching."

Leo didn't even look at her. "Shut up."

His voice was shaking with rage. "Nico, have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea how sick she is? She isn't acting. She has really forgotten everything!"