Free Web NovelChapter 182: Chapter 182
Riley’s POV
All the memories Mom and Dad took from you," she added.
That made me freeze completely."What?"
She nodded like it was something simple.
"They didn’t want you to remember me," she continued. "Or anything connected to me."
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.
Because now everything was starting to connect in a way I didn’t like.
The missing pieces. The empty gaps. The feeling that something was always off but I couldn’t explain it.
"You’ll get it all back," she said again. "Every single memory."
I shook my head slightly, trying to process everything.
"This is insane," I said quietly.
"It’s the truth," she replied.
I looked at her again, trying to find any sign that she was lying or messing with me, but there was nothing.
She was serious. And that made this even worse.
She stepped closer and took my hands again.
"Come with me," she said.
I didn’t resist.
At this point, I needed answers, and she was the only one who could give them.
She started walking, and I followed her, staying close as we moved through the place.
After a while, something appeared in front of us.
A house.
I slowed down when I saw it.
"You live there?" I asked.
She nodded."Yes."
I looked at it for a moment, then back at her.
"How long?" I asked.
"For years now," she replied.
That didn’t sit well with me.
"What do you mean years?" I asked.
"I can’t cross over," she said. "And I can’t come back to the living either."
I stared at her."So you’re stuck here?" I asked. ƒrēewebnovel.com
She nodded slightly."Yes."
We reached the house, and before I could say anything else, she suddenly turned to me again and pulled me into another hug.
This one was stronger. Tighter. It caught me off guard completely.
Her arms wrapped around me firmly, and I felt the pressure immediately, like she didn’t want to let go.
I inhaled sharply because it almost knocked the breath out of me, but I didn’t push her away.
I just stood there, letting her hold me.
Because now I understood something.
This wasn’t just a random moment for her.
This meant something.
She had been here for years.
Alone.
Stuck.
And now I was finally here.
After a few seconds, she pulled back slowly and looked at me properly.
Her expression changed slightly, and for the first time since I saw her, she looked emotional.
"I missed you," she said.
And that hit harder than anything else she had said so far.
Because I didn’t know how to respond to that.
I didn’t even remember her properly.
But somehow...I felt the sincerity in her tone.
I was still trying to steady myself after everything she had said and everything I had just seen in my head when Carian gently held my hand again and guided me further into the house. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
And this time I followed her without hesitation because at this point I needed answers more than anything else and she was the only one who could give them to me.
The inside of the house looked lived in, not abandoned or empty like I expected, and that alone made me feel strange because she had just told me she had been stuck here for years, yet everything around me looked like someone had been taking care of it, arranging things, living normally, like time hadn’t completely stopped for her.
She led me to a seat and motioned for me to sit down, and I did, slowly lowering myself while keeping my eyes on her because I still didn’t trust anything fully, not even my own reactions, and she didn’t sit immediately, she just stood in front of me and stared.
At first, I thought she was just looking at me normally, but then it kept going, and going, and going, and it started to feel different, not uncomfortable exactly, but intense, like she was trying to memorize every part of my face, like she was making sure I was actually real and not something she imagined.
I shifted slightly, frowning a little. "What?" I asked her, because I didn’t understand why she was looking at me like that.
She didn’t answer immediately, and that was when I noticed the change in her eyes, the way they softened, the way something emotional started to show through, and before I could even ask again, I saw tears forming.
That caught me off guard completely.
I straightened where I sat, confused. "Why are you crying?" I asked, because I genuinely didn’t understand how we went from talking normally to this.
She didn’t try to hide it, and that made it feel more real.
"It’s been years," she said quietly, her voice not as steady as before, and I could hear the emotion clearly now. "Years without seeing you."
I didn’t respond immediately because I didn’t know how to respond to that, especially when I didn’t even remember her properly, and yet the way she said it made it feel like I should.
"I missed you so much," she added, and this time it hit differently.
I looked at her again, properly, trying to understand what I was feeling because something inside me reacted to her words even if my mind was still catching up, and I hated that I couldn’t explain it.
It wasn’t just sympathy.
It wasn’t just confusion.
It felt deeper than that, like something in me recognized her even if I didn’t consciously remember her, and that made everything harder to ignore.
She wiped her tears after a moment and took a small breath like she was trying to calm herself down, and then she straightened up again and stepped closer to me.
Before I could ask what she was doing, she reached out and gently placed her hand on my hair, smoothing it slowly, carefully, like she had done it many times before, and I froze slightly at the contact because it felt too familiar.
"You never liked sitting still," she said softly, her fingers moving through my hair as she spoke. "Every time I tried to fix your hair, you would complain and move around like it was the worst thing in the world."
