The Forgotten Love

For four years, Mia chased Ethan Cole without shame, until his patience ran out. He pressured her family, and they sent her abroad in fear. Drugs, hypnosis, electroshock therapy — the methods worked. She forgot how it felt to love him, and even his face grew blurred. Now she is back, and wherever Ethan appears, she avoids him, because her mother warns that this breathtakingly handsome man is someone she cannot afford to offend.

When Ethan comes to the house to see her sister Bella, Mia hides, terrified of a man she cannot remember but cannot stop fearing. At dinner she keeps her eyes down, and afterward she hands him an iron box of old ID photos and small keepsakes found in her wardrobe. He denies they are his and tells her to throw them away, then accuses her of acting.

After he leaves, her sister weeps and her father strikes her. Bleeding, Mia is blamed for disappointing the family and for daring to have designs on Ethan. She remembers nothing, yet her body still trembles at his name.