The Lost And Forgotten Memories

      It’s been two days. It’s about three in the afternoon. Daniel is still in the hospital and spending his time in not a very too comfortable hospital bed. He does his best to remember everything he remembered before, but the memories about some things related to him. Daniel does not rush to trust his friends completely, but he listens to them closely and tries to memorize their words. All these people seem familiar to the man. As if he saw them somehow in the past… But there are no memories, with which one of them would have to do. And even if his friends tell him something about themselves, Daniel forgets it at all and even confuses the names of the men and the girls.       And while Daniel, setting his empty, confused look on the white ceiling, is lying on the bed and unsuccessfully trying to remember the people, who are trying to help him get the lost and forgotten memories back, a certain girl enters the room without knocking at the door. Either a nurse or a member of the hospital staff. Not too thick, but not too skinny. Probably, well-padded. It’s hard to say she is a beauty – an ordinary, unmemorable young petite girl having short black-blue hair with split ends, small hazel eyes, and a big nose.       “Hi,” the girl pronounces softly with a slight smile with a strong accent in her voice. “How are you doing?”       “Erm, hi…” Daniel greets hesitantly and quietly. “I… Not very good, honestly…”       “I worry about you so much… I not to be quiet after I know you are here.”       “Excuse me, but who are you? And how do you know me?”       “Come on, Daniel…” The girl closes the door of the room and sits on the bed, on which Daniel is lying, as he looks at the unfamiliar lady with interest. “You not to remember me? I come here yesterday!”       “You were here?”       “I come to you and tell you about me.”       “Sorry, but I forgot it…” Daniel shakes his head. “Can you remind it again, please?”       “I’m Blanca,” Blanca introduces herself with a slight smile. “Blanca Moreno. I to be your beloved girlfriend.”       “My girlfriend?”       “Yes, querida,” Blanca puts her hand on the cheek of Daniel, who understands nothing and blinks his eyes surprisingly. “You to be my boyfriend. Mi amor.”       “It’s weird…” Daniel frowns slightly. “I… Thought… That… My girlfriend looked otherwise… That she… Had different hair…”       “I completely understand you remember nothing and to be confused,” Blanca says with a terribly strong accent. “But it to be the truth. I to be your girlfriend.”       “Erm…” Daniel gets confused, trying to remember Blanca and feeling that he does not like her pretense. “Sorry… But… I can’t remember you…”       “It’s okay, mi gatito, I not to get hurt.” Blanca keeps caressing Daniel’s cheek, while he ignores the fact that his body starts resisting it. “I get it, and to be ready to wait for you to remember me.”       “Yeah… Why are you… Dressed so strangely? Well…”       “Ah, this to be my uniform,” Blanca smiles shyly. “I work at this hospital.”       “You work here?”       “Yes, I to be a cleaning woman. I wash the floors and windows here. But I hate this work and want to get fired.”       “Okay… And how did you find out I was here?”       “Oh, I just see the doctors that bring you here… I talk to one of them and find out that you strongly hit your head and lose your memory.”       “Yeah?”       “If only you know how much I to be scared, mi amor. I to be afraid to lose you so much… I even not be able to work well… They want to punish me, but I say you to be here. That you to be mi amor, my sweetheart…”       “I can’t remember what happened to me,” Daniel confesses. “I exactly know who I am. I know who I am. I remember something about my family. I exactly know my name is Daniel. And I don’t doubt that someone threatened me.”       “It probably to be some bandits. That want to steal something from you. Because of who I almost lose you. They do this to you.”       “I don’t know… I can’t remember…”       “It’s okay, querida, it to be okay,” Blanca replies confidently with a slight smile and takes Daniel’s hands, while he feels a weird feeling and gets obsessed with the coldness and a wish to step away from this girl with a terribly broken English. “I do my best for you to get better.”       “Well, I don’t feel good yet… I constantly have a headache… And nausea…”       “I get it, honey. The doctor to explain what to happen to you.”       Blanca kisses Daniel on the cheek, and he immediately feels some disgust and does not want to get closer to her. He remembers the moment when Anna took his hands, and it was not disgusting for him. Vice versa, it was very nice. And the man would definitely love to see the one, who makes his heart tremble. Maybe, Perkins would not even mind if that red-haired beauty kissed him. And the unfamiliar girl that went to his room and does not seem attractive to him, does not make him feel these emotions.       “Hey, why do you have such a weird…” Daniel wants to ask hesitantly and starts clicking his fingers. “Oh, how they call it… I forgot it… I forgot everything…”       “You mean my accent?” Blanca specifies. “The way I speak?” “Yeah. You speak so that it kinda hurts my ears… I don’t know… As if you don’t speak your mother language…”       “It to be true. Soy española y soy de España…”       “Erm, pardon, what?” Daniel frowns slightly. “I don’t understand you!”       “Perdone, I want to say I to be a Spaniard… But my English to be bad. Yo entiendo el Inglés, pero no hablo. I speak very bad, and it to be hard for me.”       “Okay… But how do you live here without knowing English?”       “Languages not to be my element. I always learn them badly. Even my Español is not always perfect, and I make mistakes.”       “You’re definitely trying.”       “Yes, I try so hard. I know only a couple of words, but now I understand much more. But it to be always hard for me to speak. English to be very hard.”       “And how long have you lived here?”       “I live here with mi hermana y mi padres.”       “Who?”       “Oops, I mean my sister and my parents.”       “And do your relatives speak English well?”       “They know English much better. And my younger sister loves to study and wants to study at a university in the USA. She helps me translate what I don’t understand into Español… But it to be hard to work without her help. I… I feel uncomfortable… And many people speak so fast… They ‘swallow’ letters… I understand nothing…”       “I see…”       “And you promise to teach me to speak English.” Blanca caresses Daniel’s cheek with a slight smile, looking into his eyes tenderly. “And you already explain much to me.”       “Really?”       “Yes. You always to be so patient and not be mad when I do something. When I say I to be stupid, you make me sure it not to be true.”       “My gosh…”       None of Blanca’s words make Daniel remember anything similar, and he listens to her without emotions on his face. And he understands that he feels otherwise with Terrence, Edward, Peter, Natalia, Raquelle, Helene, and Anna. Much better. As if they are his very close people. He thinks he knows them somehow. But it does not happen in the case of the young Spaniard. He wants to step away from her, and her broken English and squeaky voice hurt his ear.       “Listen…” Daniel says hesitantly. “Oh, forgot what… What’s your name… Erm…”       “Blanca,” Blanca smiles tenderly. “Mi nombre es Blanca.”       “Yes, Blanca… Blanca… Blanca…”       “Don’t worry, Daniel, I not to be hurt because you forget my name. The doctor says this to be… It to be… No sé cómo decirte… What happens after you hit your head…”       “Listen, Blanca, how long have we been… Dating?”       “We date for a very long time,” Blanca replies confidently with a wide smile. “Almost one and a half years.”       “One and a half years?”       “Yes! And you even purpose me. And I not to be able to reject you because I love you very much. I want to become your wife! I want to give birth to a baby for you. As gorgeous as you are.”       While Blanca says all of this, she does not move her eyes off Daniel and caresses his face with both hands, while he feels kind of strange and does not rush to answer the Spaniard’s actions… He really wants to push this girl away, but something does not let him ask her not to get closer to him. And when he hears about proposing to marry, he does not have a feeling that it happened.       “I proposed to you?” Daniel rounds his eyes surprisingly.       “¡Si, mi amor!” Blanca exclaims happily. “We want to marry in the nearest time, but I to be ready to wait for you to get well. To make our wedding and first marriage night perfect.”       “Oh…” Daniel puts a hand on his forehead with a quiet exhale. “I can’t remember… As if it didn’t happen to me.”       “I think it not to happen to me, too.” Blanca takes Daniel’s hands, at which he glances. “You ask me to calm down when I start to cry with happiness. It to be a truly mágico momento…”       “That’s how…” Daniel shakes his head, while his eyes run from one side to another, and his consciousness refuses to accept what he heard.       “I to be sure you remember everything soon. It to happen some time ago… Before you… End up here…”       “Okay, and how did we meet?” Daniel asks hesitantly, clearing his throat. “Tell me how we met.”       “I see you in a nightclub, where I come with mi amiga,” Blanca replies with a slight smile.       “Nightclub?”       “Yes. We want to call another girl, but she not to be able to come. And we come together. Well, you to come there, too. You say you want to have some fun and drink something.”       “And what’s next?”       “Next, I decide to go to the restroom for two minutes and leave that girl alone. But later, you accidentally run into me and look at me for a long time.”       “My gosh…” Daniel rounds his eyes, feeling how something clicks in his heart with the thought that this story seems very familiar to him, unlike Blanca’s stories about the proposal. “How it’s familiar…”       “We quickly come to ourselves, and you say I to be very beautiful. You invite me to join you and drink with you, but I refuse and say I come here with my friend. But we share our numbers and leave with a promise to meet again.”       “And we met?”       “We did,” Blanca smiles widely. “A little later, you call me and invite me to walk, and I agree. Then, we often start to go somewhere and confess our love for each other later. After that meeting, I start to feel truly wanted and loved.”       These words make Daniel believe in Blanca’s story. At least the way they allegedly met seems familiar to him.       “You know, I remember something from your story, but very, very vaguely…” Daniel replies hesitantly, putting his finger on his lips. “I mean… I can’t remember… I think that case is familiar to me…”       “You see, honey,” Blanca smiles slightly. “You remember something. So, you can have no doubt that we date.”       “I think we’re really dating… If I barely remember how we met.”       “We are. And I make more and more sure that love to be a wonderful feeling. I adore to love and to be loved.”       “I’m sorry that I forgot what people in love feel…”       “You cannot remember?”       “No… What is that?”       “I to be able to remind…” Blanca pronounces in a much lower voice, moves much closer to Daniel, and brings her face to his face, examining it with her eyes and running her hand through his hair. “Everything to turn upside down… Your heart to stop after someone calls the name of their sweetheart… Or when you think of them… You get attracted to your dearest person… Want to kiss them… Spend every second with them… It to be incredible…”       While Blanca smiles shyly and looks at Daniel with an ogle gaze, he keeps an absolutely indifferent face, looking into her eyes as if he is hypnotized and feeling nothing. To be clear, he does feel something. A wish to stop it all. Step away from this girl, who does not cause any nice emotions and does not make the heart tremble.       “And yeah, you kiss so well…” Blanca purrs quietly. “Your kisses always drive me crazy. I feel so wanted… I immediately want to take off my clothes and give myself to you.”       “You really liked it?” Daniel asks hesitantly.       “Mucho, mi gatito. Nobody to make me feel the way you do. And I want to do this again right now…”       The fact that Blanca brings her face to his face slowly but confidently makes Daniel come to himself a little and find the courage to let her know that he does not want her to do this.       “No, no, no, I can’t…” Daniel jabs excitedly, breathing a little heavily. “No… Sorry, Blanca, I’m not ready now…”       “C’mon, sweetie, why do you react in this way?” Blanca asks softly, fixing Daniel’s hair with a slight smile. “I just want to kiss you.”       “Erm… The doctor banned me from getting excited…”       “Kisses do nothing bad to people. Vice versa – if I start to kiss you and show my love, you quickly start to get well, go home, and start to get ready for our wedding.”       “Let’s do it later…”       “We to be almost married, querida. I to be your wife and a mother of our future children.”       “Yeah, but I don’t remember how I purposed to you! I only remember something from the story of our meeting.”       “You remember everything, Daniel, I promise,” Blanca purrs with a slight smile and caresses Daniel’s face, while he shakes slightly because he does not like it, and her hands are cold enough. “I do my best for this. And when you leave the hospital, I finally introduce you to my family.”       “Haven’t you done it yet?”       “Alas, no. But I fix it. I want mi papa y mi mama to be quiet and sure they to give me to the wonderful man.”       “I’d be happy to meet them.”       “And now I give you enough attention, so you get well soon. Remember that I be always with you and take care of you like nobody else. I to be imitable and the most beloved one for you.”       “I hope I’ll get my memory back and remember you soon,” Daniel expresses hope with a slight smile. “It… Hurts me… That you have to… Hear I can’t remember who you are.”       “I understand it, sunshine.” Blanca caresses Daniel’s cheek and puts her hand on his chest. “I to be quiet because it to be temporary.”       “The doctor also says I’ll get my memory back early or late. When I recover after the head trauma, everything will get better.”       “I want to say the same. So, don’t worry, querida. Whatever happens, I am always with you.”       “Thanks…” Daniel smiles slightly. “Branca…”       “Blanca… Soy Blanca.”       “Yes, yes, sorry, I forgot… Sorry, I’m so forgetful… I forget everything that happened two minutes ago…”       “It to be gone. I promise.”       “It hurts that such a… Pretty girl… Has to suffer because of me.”       “It’s okay, Daniel, don’t say anything. The most important thing is not the fact that I suffer, but your recovery.”       “I’m gonna do my best to get well soon. And… At least leave the hospital.”       Silence settles the air for two seconds, during which Daniel moves his eyes to his hands, one of which is bandaged tightly, and Blanca puts her arm around his neck and runs her finger over his lips.       “Still, honey, let me show you how to kiss?” Blanca asks with a mysterious smile. “I promise I kiss you very tenderly. Your heart to start to tremble.”       “I don’t know, B-b…” Daniel replies hesitantly with a heavy breath in a shaking voice. “Blanca… I… I can’t…”       “There is nothing hard about this, honey. You love to kiss me so much and do it every time you find a good time.”       “Let’s try to do it a little later…”       “And yeah, somehow you say you like the way I kiss you. You say my kisses to be much better than those that other girls give you.”       “Really?”       “Really. And you say I to be the best… You always call me nice words… My sunshine… My happiness… And I especially love when you call me a princess. I love it so much!”       The word “princess” makes Daniel’s heart tremble, and he thinks he really called someone to be very important to him in this way.       “Princess?” Daniel smiles slightly.       “Yes, sweetie,” Blanca pronounces nicely, putting her head on Daniel’s shoulder with a slight smile. “You can always make me smile with your amazing compliments. And actually, you to be an amazing man, with who I feel protected and beloved.”       Not suspecting this, Daniel gets caught in the trap of a girl called Blanca Moreno, who insolently uses his amnesia and tells him what she wants. Seeing that the Spaniard presses herself close to him, caresses his face, and does not stop smiling, the man starts to think that he really treats her so tenderly.       “I believe you…” Daniel smiles slightly, caressing Blanca’s cheek a little hesitantly, while she is literally ready to melt in his arms, especially after he hugs her around the shoulders with his arm. “You really seem very good… But I’m sorry I can’t remember you.”       “Gosh, you to be so warm…” Blanca purrs with a wide smile, tenderly rubbing her cheek against Daniel’s one like a cat. “Even if you remember nothing, I still feel wonderful. You to be a strong man. My protector. My tiger.”       “You make me blush…” Daniel laughs shyly.       “I show my love.” Blanca steps back from Daniel and caresses his cheek tenderly. “And I still hope you kiss me right now.”       “You really want it so much?”       “Very much. Por favor, mi amor… I want to kiss you so badly…”       “Okay…” Daniel replies hesitantly. “But… I think I can’t remember… How to do it…”       “It not to be a problem. Repeat, and you feel very good.”       “Listen, Blanca, I…”       Daniel does not speak his mind because Blanca, speaking rudely, shuts him up, letting her lips connect with his lips immediately and starting to kiss him very passionately. He gets confused because he does not know what to do and how to react, not being happy with her pressure… While the girl feels goosebumps on her body and slight dizziness and starts to moan quietly from pleasure, the man… He does not actually care. He just answers the kiss that he resists at first, toughening his muscles, but then he understands that he is powerless under the strong pressure of the Spaniard, relaxes sharply, and lets it happen as it wants. It seems like Daniel is supposed to get pleasure and kiss as passionately as Blanca does it. However, the man does not do it. He does not answer the kiss and just lets himself be manipulated. Not because he thinks he forgot how to kiss. But also because he seriously believes this girl is his real sweetheart.       Now Perkins is like a doll that is under the control of someone to do everything they want with it. Blanca is playing a “doll Daniel” and uses the situation insolently. She does not let the man catch some air if he needs it, presses him too closely to herself, literally squeezing everything inside his body, does not give him a choice, and controls everything.       Daniel does not even suspect that Anna comes to the hospital after she decided to talk to him, tell him about herself, and find out what he feels when being next to her. Even if the girl came here with her friends, she did not almost talk to her boyfriend and just looked at him silently with a strong pain in her heart. But now Anna calmed down a little, listened to her friends’ opinions, and tried to make herself sure that Daniel would get well and remember everything if she and her friends were next to him. Since the girl knows where his room is, she is coming there confidently enough, fingering over nervously. When she comes to the room, she wants to knock at the door and ask if she may enter. But not being able to resist a wish to look through the small window, she sees Daniel and Blanca, who told him the lie and made it look like the truth. His back is turned to the room’s door, and Anna cannot find out if he is smiling. And the Spaniard’s one is turned at the one, but she notices nothing but the man, whom she is trying to seduce, having her arm wrapped around his neck and running her fingers over his lips and saying something with a slight smile on her face.       Seeing this scene, Anna closes her mouth with a hand with tears coming to her eyes not to scream with pain. But after Daniel caresses Blanca’s cheek hesitantly and embraces her, the girl is ready to rant and rave. Because of the insolence of that girl, who shamelessly accosts her man and feels him up as if he belongs to her.       “What’s the madam?” Anna asks. “Why does she the hell accost Daniel? How did she end up here? I see her for the first time!”       Anna is ready to fall on her knees and screams out right here and now with the pain that gets obsessed with her when Blanca kisses Daniel on his lips hotly, while he lets her kiss him some time later. This is the moment that Anna has always been afraid of! When the young people were dating, the girl always talked about her fear of losing Daniel and waited for it to come true. And now, when she relaxed a little, what she was afraid of happened. Yes, Daniel does not remember Anna now and does not know she is his real girlfriend. However, Anna does not care about it and is sure this man betrayed her.       “He’s kissing the other girl…” Anna thinks with horror in her eyes, sobbing constantly and shaking. “He doesn’t push that bitch off! He does answer her insolence! No, no, I don’t wanna believe it… I must be sleeping. Please, God, no, no… It can’t be the truth…”       No matter how much Anna does not want to believe she really sees what’s happening, she has to accept this. That’s why she gets obsessed with a wish to scream and destroy everything she sees before her eyes and strong jealousy. At some moment, the girl wants to break into the room, pull Blanca’s hair, strangle her, and slap Daniel in the face, telling him everything she thinks of him. Anna does not even want to think someone is lying to the man insolently, and is sure that he cheated on her consciously.       “How could he do this with me?” Anna asks herself, watching Daniel and Blanca kiss with tears in her eyes and seeing how the man puts one hand on the back of the Spaniard’s head and another hand on her back. “Betrayer! Cad! He used the moment to start an affair with another girl! She probably told him tons of compliments, and he does the fuck remember how he showed up when hearing something like that and listened to her open-mouthed. Or they’ve had an affair for ages? Did that stinker lie to me? He went home as if nothing happened and slept with me in the same bed?”       The more Anna is standing in front of the room and watching what’s happening, the stronger her pain mixed with evil, jealousy, and a wish to die, is getting. From the realization of the fact that her life is now over and deprived of any meaning. Tears get out of her tears without control, her legs can barely hold her, and she can barely breathe.       “Ha, do you really think I’d stay with you after your betrayal?” Anna thinks, burning from the anger inside her. “Don’t wait, Perkins! I’m leaving you! I don’t care about what happened to you, and who hit you on your head so that you lost your memory and the rest of your brain. Don’t count on my help! May the men and the girls help you, but I won’t even move my finger! But if they knew you’re a scumbag, I doubt that someone would love to help you.”       Anna thinks about something for a few seconds, not holding down her bitter tears, as she watches Daniel and Blanca kissing.       “I’ll leave that house,” Anna decides and sniffs quietly. “Yes, I will no longer stay there! I’m gonna take my stuff now and leave. May that scumbag solve his problems by himself and live with that slut! May she sleep on the bed, on which I slept. Alright, I’m done! I’m giving you freedom! I think Father would accept me at his home… And you go to hell, Perkins! Keep snuggling with that idiot. I hate you, betrayer! I wish you never got your memories back and remembered who I am, and who those, who wanna take care of you, are. Curse you, asshole!”       Anna gives a look full of disgust to Daniel suspecting nothing, turns around sharply on the heels, and rushes to leave the hospital, not stopping to think about how passionately the man kissed Blanca and feeling an unbearable pain that is getting stronger every second.       A few seconds later, Blanca and Daniel break the kiss. It was not exciting and impressive for the man, as the girl promised. He did not feel anything like that, and he remains absolutely indifferent. Also, his impression is bad because the Spaniard cannot kiss at all and struggles with the feeling of nausea that he got after her tongue got too deeply in his mouth. But Blanca smiles widely and is happy with what’s happening, being so blinded by her obsession with the man that she does not care that he dislikes her at first. However, later, she notices that the man looks kind of gloomy and does not rush to give her compliments.       “¿Que le paso, mi amor?” Blanca rounds her eyes, caressing Daniel’s head. “You not to like something?”       “Nope…” Daniel replies hesitantly with a false smile and looks around, fingering over nervously. “I liked it… Really liked…”       “But why do you have this face?”       “Just… I just have a weird feeling… I can’t understand what’s happening to me…”       “This is love, Daniel,” Blanca says softly with a slight smile. “If you feel so good, it means you love.”       “Yeah, but… This feeling is kinda strange to me… I… Don’t know… If it should happen so…”       “Oh, mi amor…” Blanca runs her thick fingers through Daniel’s hair. “You hit your head so strongly that you even forget such a wonderful and light feeling…”       “Yeah… I feel helpless, to be honest…”       “No, querida, you not to be helpless… You remember how to kiss. So, you to be on the right way.”       “Maybe…”       Blanca smiles shyly and takes Daniel into her hug. But this is kind of rude because the girl is holding him too tightly and might definitely choke him. At least, he can try to swallow and wipe off the saliva that she ran into her mouth and left on his lips after her inept kiss with no fear. He does do it. And then he caresses the girl’s back hesitantly and touches her hair on the top of her head slightly. On the one hand, the heart, which still remembers Anna and beats faster when Daniel thinks of that short red-haired girl with a baby face, says he does love the one he called very beautiful. But on the other hand, the Spaniard told him what the man barely remembers. And it makes him think that she might tell him the truth. And her words sound true enough… At least, Perkins wants to think so…       A few seconds later, someone knocks at the door. While Blanca steps back from Daniel sharply with widely open eyes, the doctor of the man enters here, sees the girl, and frowns slightly.       “Blanca?” the doctor gets mad. “What are you doing here? Are you doing anything except your work?”       “Oh, señor…” Blanca pronounces hesitantly in a shaking voice. “I… I…”       “Do you want someone to report you? You were told that you would be fired if you get another claim!”       “Por favor, señor, lo siento, lo siento…” Blanca sharply steps back from Daniel and fixes her little disheveled hair. “I just want to know how he to feel.”       “Stop checking out the rooms of patients and talking to them! They do need a rest, but you bother them by speaking terrible English.”       “I’m sorry, señor, I do not want…”       “Go to work now!” the doctor orders a little rudely. “The floor in the whole hospital is dirty again because the cleaning woman is doing nothing!”       “I understand it… Understand…”       “Now, Moreno! And remember: if you get one more report, you will be fired! Nobody will tolerate such a lazy and insolent staff member.”       “Si, si, señor, I go… Go… Go…”       Blanca stands up from the bed and, tucking a strand of hair behind her ears, rushes to leave the room, while the doctor watches her.       “What a lazy girl,” the doctor blunts gloomily. “And rude! She walks nobody knows where and wants to do nothing! Who will work and wash the floors? Fewer people have complained about her!”       “Excuse me for my curiosity, doctor, but why would she get fired?” Daniel asks hesitantly. “What did that girl do?”       “Don’t better ask! Blanca does not do her work and constantly walks in the hospital, like on the street. The other cleaning women do a bigger half of her work, and that idler only holds her phone, eats something constantly at the cafeteria, and dings into everybody’s ears about a band. Or a singer. I did not get it!”       “And why did you call her mean?”       “She is mean to everyone! People ask her something, and she rudely pisses them off or confuses them, so that they get lost. In short, she only causes problems! And she is a Spaniard, who barely speaks English! I don’t know how she actually got a job…”       “I see…”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, and then the doctor frowns slightly and moves his eyes to Daniel.       “Yeah, Mr. Perkins, what did she want from you?” the doctor asks.       “I don’t know…” Daniel shrugs. “She went to the room without knocking and started to say something… I… Did not understand it all, honestly.”       “I think I saw her near your room yesterday. Didn’t she come to you?”       “Blanca said she did. But I forgot about it.”       “I see…” the doctor exhales sharply. “Alright, I will deal with this girl later… And it would be good if she got fired. She gets money for nothing! For being terribly lazy and working only after a few kicks.”       “She is… Kind of… I don’t even know how to say it…” Daniel starts fingering over nervously. “Annoying! She imposes on me too hard…”       “Don’t you want her to come here?”       “No, may she come if she wants… But I feel uncomfortable in her company… Blanca presses on me strongly… You see…”       “Don’t worry, Mr. Perkins. If I see Moreno near your room, I will personally work on getting her fired.”       “Thanks, doctor.”       “By the way, how are you feeling today?” the doctor asks, comes to Daniel, and checks out his pupillary response with a flashlight that he takes from the pocket of his white robe.       “A little better, but I sometimes feel a headache.”       “Do you want me to give you an analgesic?”       “It would be great…” Daniel replies, scratching the back of his head.       “Alright, I will do it… And does something else bothers you?”       “I feel a little sick… And strong weakness…”       “Don’t your eyes hurt under the light?”       “A little less.”       “Alright. As I’ve said, if you have a good rest and follow your doctor’s recommendations, you will get well soon. You have strong brain damage, but it’s not so critical. You just need not to get tense.”       “So, would I recover quickly?”       “Well, nothing happens quickly. I think you will spend one or two months recovering. Or maybe, even more.”       “Wow…”       “Don’t worry, sir. You are a young and tough guy, and you have a good organism… Young people usually take some illnesses easier. And you will be able to live the former life some time later.”       “You’re giving me hope.”       The doctor puts the flashlight in the pocket of his white robe and cracks a smile at Daniel, while Perkins glances at the window, folding his hands in front of himself.       “By the way, Mr. Perkins…” the doctor pronounces thoughtfully. “I paid attention to the red-haired girl, who was here with her friends. She said you are her boyfriend.”       “I kind of memorized her better than those, who come here,” Daniel confesses. “Well… Maybe I also remember the guy with blond hair… And I forget the others when they leave.”       “So, do you remember those two?”       “Not quite… I just… I think I’ve seen them before. They seem more familiar to me than the others.”       “And what about the others?”       “They also seem familiar to me, but I’m not sure.” Daniel exhales slowly. “Honestly, I’m confused… I want to remember at least someone, but I can only say something about myself.”       “You will remember everything shortly. Your memory will come back slowly. Now you remember something about you, and tomorrow, you will remember that red-haired girl and that blond.”       “Yeah, I must confess that the girl is really beautiful,” Daniel smiles slightly. “And… I feel kind of weird when I think of her… And when she comes to the room… I don’t mean it’s disgusting. Vice versa, I want to get closer to her.”       “Your memory does not remember, but your heart does. It does know who it belonged to before you lost your memory.”       “Yeah, but I’m upset that she’s silent. While those people say something constantly, that girl has said nothing. I only heard her voice two days ago. I tried to ask her something and talk, but she was silent.”       “She is just shocked, Mr. Perkins. But don’t worry, that girl will come to herself and talk to you soon. Your friends were also deeply shocked after they heard about you. They still cannot believe you can remember nothing, but they can help you.”       “It’s all so complicated… My head is tearing from everything I have to hear and find out. And the worst thing is that I can’t completely trust those people. Yes, it seems like they want to help, but… I don’t know… I doubt…”       “Here’s my advice, young man,” the doctor says softly, sitting on the bed in front of Daniel. “Do not reject the help of these people. I’m absolutely sure they tell you the truth.”       “You think I can remember them?”       “I am. When you leave the hospital, spend a lot of time with them. Maybe, you can remember something about those people. I’ve already asked them to tell you about them and show you the places that somehow connect you. It’s supposed to help you a little.”       “Wouldn’t I really stay like this forever? Will I really remember everything?”       “No, Mr. Perkins, amnesia usually lasts for a little time. Maybe, now you do not remember anyone, but you will remember everything some time later. It might happen at any time. Don’t wait. Just live, spend time with those people, and recover after the trauma. And when you get better, it will be easier for you to remember everything, and your brain will start working correctly.”       “I would really like to remember everything and know who lies and tells the truth.”       “You will, I promise… Just follow my pieces of advice. And listen to the sound of your heart. It will tell you what to do. Although they say you should obey your mind, you can listen to your heart and sixth sense. Pay attention to the sighs that your body gives you. If it resists something, you should think about whether you should keep moving on.”       Daniel says nothing and just sets his dead eyes on his doctor, who smiles to encourage him and glances at the small window closed with a curtain.       “Alright, I will give you an analgesic now,” the doctor says thoughtfully and gets up from the bed slowly. “And then I will make sure you sleep a little.” The doctor takes some papers from the table near the bed and leaves the room, while Daniel thinks about his words. Too many contradictions do not let him put everything in the right places and get a picture that has too many puzzles. He has already gotten absolutely confused, and it’s very hard for him to understand who he is, and who everybody is. Nevertheless, the man decides to accept his friends’ help. Moreover, he feels comfortable enough when being next to them. And his consciousness says he is on the right track.       

***

      Some time later, Anna went to Daniel’s home to take all her things, still not holding down bitter tears from the pain. Yes, it’s madly hard for her to leave this house and the man, whom she loves as much as she has never done before. But his kiss with Blanca immediately ended everything that they went through. And now Anna is taking her stuff, putting everything in two big cases on wheels. Among what belongs to her, the girl finds some photos of Daniel and her, in which they look so happy and did not think of breaking up. After viewing the photos for a few seconds, Anna throws them aside with no pity and tears some of them into pieces, not stopping recalling the kiss of the man and another lady. Some frames get broken into a few pieces, and the torn photos keep lying on the floor. The girl keeps putting her stuff in the bags, throwing everything she takes from the dressing room in it not very carefully, deciding not to tell her friends about what she saw. She thinks it would change nothing, and words of comfort would not treat the scars on her heart that is now broken because of the thought that she lost the man, with whom she wanted to live her whole life. Even the experience of her friends, Raquelle and Natalia, cannot make Anna change her point of view and understand that Daniel could not do it on purpose.       Some time later, Anna finally takes all of her stuff, even if she rushes to leave so hard and forgets something from the clothes and cosmetics that fall on the floor and roll under the table or bed. After looking around quickly, the girl leaves the room determinedly, brings two heavy bags down the stairs, and stops in the middle of the living room.       “Bye, house…” Anna sniffs quietly with wet eyes, tightly squeezing the handles of her bags and looking at the whole living room. “I loved you with all my heart and am gonna miss you… You, not your owner… Who is a naughty scoundrel… May that bitch rule everything in this house. I’m giving Perkins freedom. And I’ll never forgive that cheater.”       After looking at the whole living room multiple times, Anna leaves it with tears in her eyes, not noticing that she touches one of the photos in a frame that falls and gets broken. The girl locks the door with the keys that she puts under the mat, knowing that she will never be back here. Later, she, moving her bags on the wheels, comes to the yellow taxi that she requested some time ago. The driver immediately goes out to help the girl put her stuff in the boot of the car. Then, the two get into the car, Anna calls the address where her father is living, and the driver gives a start, noticing that his client is very sad and even crying quietly. At first, he wants to ask what happened, but he sees that she set her eyes on the window and does not definitely want to talk, and decides not to bother her and just to drive her where she said.       

***

      Thirty-forty minutes later, the taxi comes to the right place. When Anna hears she is at the final destination, the girl pays for the trip, and gets out of the car, while the driver takes the bags out of the boot of the car. Anna takes them, thanks him, and slowly comes to the skyscraper, near which she is standing. This is the place where there is an apartment of her father, Maximilian, who moved here after divorcing the girl’s mother, Lilian. The girl looks at the high skyscraper with a feeling of excitement and panic for a few seconds. She suddenly starts to doubt if she did the right thing by succumbing to her wish to piss her boyfriend off and leave him. Her heart starts squeezing and bleeding from the thought that Daniel stayed alone, without the girl, who does know how to take care of him. But after recalling the man’s betrayal, the girl bans herself from pity and a wish to go back, exhales sharply, and comes to the building confidently.       She enters it and goes upstairs, to the floor that she needs by using the elevator, walks down a long hall for some time, and finds the right door among many of them. Anna stands in front of it and hesitates for a few seconds, then rings the doorbell with a shaking hand and waits for the reaction. Later, the old man with short, dark brown hair and dark green eyes opens the door. He smiles widely when he sees the young girl on the doorstep, not noticing that she has the bags with her.       “Anna!” the man pronounces happily. “My girl, I’m so happy to see you!”       “Hi, Daddy,” Anna pronounces quietly.       Maximilian and Anna hug each other touchingly and share a kiss on the cheek.       “My gosh, I wanted to call you and invite you to visit me,” Maximilian confesses. “But you decided to come.”       “Yeah, sorry for not warning,” Anna apologizes shyly.       “It’s okay…” Maximilian moves his eyes to the bags next to Anna and frowns strongly. “Wait… Are you carrying bags? It’s yours?”       “Yes, Dad,” Anna replies confidently.       “But what…”       “Will you let me live with you? Please, Daddy, let me stay here.”       “Live with me? B-but but what happened, daughter? You are living with Daniel!”       “I’m not now,” Anna says coldly in a low voice. “I left his home. And I left him.”       “God, sweetie, what are you talking about?” Maximilian rounds his eyes.       “I’m serious, Dad. Daniel and I are no longer together. And I want to live with you.”       “Oh… Listen, honey, I don’t understand… Let’s enter the apartment, so you calm down and explain everything.”       Maximilian hugs Anna around the shoulders and helps her carry the bags into the apartment. While the girl looks around with sad eyes, the man closes the door quickly and comes to his daughter, going to the living room where they leave her stuff. Maximilian takes Anna’s hands softly and sits on the sofa with her, seeing that she is crying quietly again after she barely calmed down.       “Sweetie, what happened to you?” Maximilian asks anxiously. “Explain, why did you leave Daniel’s house? You lived together so well!”       “I left him, Dad,” Anna says in a shaking voice with tears coming to her eyes. “I left. I don’t need a man who doesn’t keep his promises.”       “But what happened between you? Maybe, you left him because of stupid things? Fought with him because of a stupid thing and decided to run away?”       “Stupid things?” Anna opens her eyes widely. “Do you really think cheating is a stupid thing?”       “What?” Maximilian falls into a great stupor. “Cheating?”       “Yes, Dad. Daniel cheated on me, and I’m not gonna forgive him for it.”       “Anna, sweetie, what are you talking about? Why are you so sure about it?”       “Because I saw it!”       “C’mon, my sunshine.” Maximilian caresses Anna’s cheek softly. “That guy does love you! No thoughts about cheating in his mind! I do see how he looks at you. I’m sure he would feel hurt if he heard these charges from you.”       “If he loved, he wouldn’t have kissed the other girl!”       “Other girl?” Maximilian shakes his head. “No, no! No, I can’t believe he could do that.”       “Believe it or not, but that’s true,” Anna replies with sadness in her eyes, sobbing quietly.       “But why do you think so? Did someone tell you about it? One idiot that wants to ruin your happiness!”       “Nobody said anything! And I don’t need it! Because I saw everything I needed.”       “What did you see?”       “I visited him in the hospital and saw Perkins kissing the other girl before my eyes.”       “Wait, wait, is Daniel in the hospital?” Maximilian asks, shaking his head sharply. “I heard it right?”       “Yes, it’s been three days.”       “But what happened to him?”       “He’s been either hit out by a car or beaten by someone. I can’t say anything.”       “Oh, God…” Maximilian closes his mouth with a hand and shakes his head with sadness in his eyes. “Poor guy… How did it happen?”       “This story is very strange. Nobody knows what actually happened to him. He was found unconscious on the empty road in a terrible condition.”       “My gosh… How is he feeling?”       “Concussion and partial amnesia,” Anna replies without emotions, looking at the floor and locking her fingers tightly.       “Oh, how awful! So, doesn’t Daniel remember something?”       “He remembers nothing.”       “My gosh…” Maximilian falls into silence for two seconds and shakes his head, looking at Anna with pity. “And who needed it? Is the fame of his band the one to blame? Someone hates him so much that they decided to get rid of Daniel?”       “I don’t care what kind of business he has. I don’t have to do with it and am not going to do anything to help him.”       “No, you shouldn't have left him, darling,” Maximilian says with sadness in his eyes. “You went insane – to leave a man in such a terrible condition! Only those, who don’t feel the love, do that. If you truly loved, you wouldn’t have done this thing.”       “Right, I wouldn’t have done it. But I’m not gonna let him have me wrapped around his finger. Smile at me and kiss another girl when my back is turned on him.”       “I get it, daughter, but Daniel doesn’t probably know who you are. If you say he remembers nothing. And if you don’t help him, he will not remember you and those he knows soon.”       “I’m not gonna help him. I no longer care about what’s happening to him. If it happened, he deserved it. This case opened my eyes to the disgusting soul of that betrayer.”       “He needs love and care, Anna, but you’re leaving him. I’m more than sure that Daniel didn’t know what he did, if your story about his kiss with another girl is true. And it’s strange enough, to be honest.”       “I don’t care, may his friends coddle him, but I won’t even move my finger,” Anna replies coldly in a low voice. “Or may his new girlfriend feed him with a spoon or wipe his mouth.”       “Don’t you know who she is? It’s none of your friends?”       “No, Dad, c’mon! I saw that madam for the first time. And my friends wouldn’t hook up with my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Moreover, they’re all taken: two of them are gonna get married, and a third one is dating a wonderful man.”       “Interesting case…” Maximilian frowns slightly. “I’d reflect on it.”       “Don’t waste time. It’s not worth it.”       “Listen, which hospital is he in? I want to talk to him about this situation and ask him about that girl.”       “No, Dad, do nothing,” Anna says gloomily. “First, I will not be back to him, no matter how hard he begs me. And second, he will not remember you and will say you don’t know each other.”       “But you love him!”       “I don’t love anymore! I don’t want to love the betrayal, who gave a damn about me, like nobody else had done it before.”       “Have you thought that the girl could use his condition and instill something in Daniel’s mind? And he trusted her! He could believe she told him the truth! Or that girl did it by force. For example, he didn’t want to kiss her, but she made him.”       “Yeah, force,” Anna hums with rolled eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “Perkins didn’t mind at all and answered the kiss with pleasure. Though, he could’ve stepped away when she was hanging on his neck.”       “You say it because you’re mad. If you were quiet, you’d be able to rate this situation differently.”       “I’m not going to change my mind. Daniel and I broke up – that’s all!”       “Not you two broke up, but just you. When one person of a couple in love speaks, it means nothing. You left him, but he didn’t leave you.”       “I give a damn! I want to hear nothing about that stinker.”       “Don’t forget, the guy has a band that has some fans. And you know that fans sometimes might be so obsessed with someone that they might do anything. That girl could be one of them.”       “The media doesn’t know what happened to him yet.”       “Maybe, someone from the hospital staff likes the band of that guy and has a crush on Daniel. Found out that he has amnesia and used it insolently.”       “Please, Dad, don’t excuse him,” Anna says coldly, raising her hand toward Maximilian. “If he wanted, he would’ve easily pushed that insolent lady off. But Perkins didn’t do that and answered her kiss.”       “Yes, I get it. But she could’ve washed his brains and made him believe anything.”       “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter now. I’ll no longer come back to Daniel and help him. May his friends take care of him and spend their time with him. And they may not count on me.”       “Anna, daughter, listen…”       “I wanna hear nothing! Daniel died for me, and I wanna know nothing about him. Alive or dead, remembers someone or not – I gi-ve a damn!”       “Oh…” Maximilian sighs heavily and runs his hands over his face. “Okay, sweetie, let’s talk about it later. I think you’re now obsessed with jealousy and wouldn’t hear anything someone would try to explain to you.”       “I said everything.”       “But don’t hide the truth, at least from you. You actually still love him. Love can’t be gone for one moment. You need some time to let it happen.”       “I do love him…” Anna makes a quiet sob. “Madly love. I thought I had found the man, with whom I wanted to live my life. I believed we’d get married someday and grow our children… That we’d be together ‘till death do us apart.”       “Daniel is a very good man. He just became a victim of events and a toy of the one, who kissed him. I’m sure about it.”       “I said, don’t defend him! I wouldn’t be surprised if they dated for a long time, and he lied to me all this time and pretended that everything was fine.”       “No, sunshine, c’mon! There was no reason to start an affair. Daniel always said you took care of him well. A happy man would never look around and cheat with other women. For the one to be pleased with everything, there is only one lady that he would not leave for any other.”       “It’s just words. All men are liars! Cheaters! Scumbags!”       “No, no, Anna, don’t say it.”       “Why, Dad?” Anna wonders, looking at Maximilian with wet eyes full of pity and crying quietly. “Why did he swear that he loved me and have me wrapped around his finger all this time? I did everything for him: cooking, cleaning, washing… I tried to spend a lot of time with him. I was always beautiful and took care of myself. I even never made him marry me by force! I was waiting for him to propose to me!”       “I think the best thing you can do is to talk to him when he remembers everything,” Maximilian replies confidently. “Daniel will quickly understand that he cheated on you. He will confess it if he wants to be honest.”       “I don’t need his confessions. I saw everything. I hate that betrayer! I hate!”       Anna, shaking strongly and crying bitterly, closes her face with both hands and doubles over. It’s very hard for Maximilian to look at this girl, who used to cry in rare cases, but now is literally ready to choke with tears and cannot calm down.       “Don’t cry, honey, don’t cry,” Maximilian says with sadness in his eyes, hugging Anna tightly and caressing her head. “I get hurt when I see you like this.”       “I’m in despair, Daddy,” Anna replies in a strongly shaking voice. “I experienced such a terrible thing. When I didn’t actually expect to get a knife in my back.”       “Anyway, I don’t believe he could do that. If Daniel had a clear mind, he would’ve rejected that girl.”       “He could, Father, could,” Anna says in a hoarse, loud voice. “Why don’t you believe me? Do you think I’m lying to you? I ran away from Perkins because I’m sick of him, or sort of? No! I left him because he betrayed me. Betrayed our love! Gave a damn about my feelings. I told him a million times that I could forgive anything but cheating. I was ready to close my eyes to anything! Accept any of his shortcomings and habits! But by cheating, he immediately ruined the good things that we experienced.”       “I believe you, daughter, I do. I just don’t want you to regret your decision.”       “I will not regret it, Dad. Never! My sufferings are gonna be that betrayer’s fault. Because of him, my heart is broken, and I don’t know how to live… My life was deprived of meaning. I will not love someone as much as that betrayer.”       “Ah, darling, I don’t even know how to help you…” Maximilian sighs heavily and kisses Anna on the top of her head. “If I could weaken your pain and get a chance not to see your tears, I would do it with no doubt. But alas, I can’t do it… Because falling out of love with someone you can’t live without is super hard…”       “Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d be ready for anything for them? Have you had that woman in your life?”       “Erm…” Maximilian thinks for two seconds with sadness in his eyes, still pressing Anna to himself and caressing her head, which is resting on his shoulder. “Yes, I had… A long time ago. When I was a teenager.”       “First love?”       “No, not first. It’s weird, but I don’t almost remember my first love. Though, people say you can’t forget it. I forgot her literally, immediately… And nothing serious happened between us…”       “Did you love her so much?”       “Yes, very much,” Maximilian smiles slightly with sadness in his eyes. “But we had to break up…”       “Didn’t my grandparents let you date?”       “Sadly. They gave much attention to my education and even sent me abroad for a few years to study. And I didn’t resist and quickly got busy with my studies.”       “So, didn’t that girl mean anything to you?”       “Of course, she did! I was ready for anything for that sweet girl with the most wonderful smile in the world. But alas, my parents had a strong influence on me, and I always did what they wanted. With the thought that you couldn’t go against older people, and they knew what I needed better.”       “Did you never fall in love with anyone after that?”       “I had some affairs, but nothing serious. They were all doomed to fail because my parents wanted to find a decent wife for me. And thus, they agreed about my wedding with your mother. They were very close to the Dickmans, the family of Lilian, and said they wanted to become their family many times. So, as their daughter wasn’t married, and I didn’t marry, they decided to get us married.”       “You’re lucky…” Anna sighs heavily and wipes tears off her cheek, sniffing quietly. “Nobody has cheated on you… You’ve never felt the pain that makes you wish to scream at the top of your lungs and pull your hair out.”       “Honey, although I’ve never experienced a betrayal of a girl, I completely understand your feelings. The feelings of my daughter, whom I love, and to whom I wish happiness.”       “Alas, I’ll never feel happiness. I lost a part of me… Because of that betrayer.”       “You know, sweetie, let’s close this topic and wait for a while. We’ll talk when you calm down. Anger is a bad adviser that you should never have a deal with not for anything in the world. It obeys you to itself like hypnosis and makes you do what you may regret when you wake up.”       “I’ve made up my mind.”       “I’m gonna say one thing: I don’t defend Daniel and don’t approve of the fact that he kissed that girl. But I’m sure that he wouldn’t kiss the other girl, knowing that he is dating you. And he will surely regret it when he remembers everything and understands what he did.”       “He had a choice: rejecting her or kissing her! He chose the second way!”       “Okay, okay, I will not say anything more,” Maximilian says quietly. “You should calm down and come to yourself, and Daniel must remember you and everything he forgot. Then, we’ll think and decide.”       “Don’t decide anything. I will not be back to him. And if I have to, I will stay alone. Because of him.”       Maximilian says nothing and presses Anna closer to himself, kissing the top of her head, while she sets her sad eyes into the distance.       “By the way, you haven’t said if I can live with you,” Anna says hesitantly.       “Sure, my baby, what kind of question!” Maximilian exclaims with a slight smile. “You can live with me as much as you want. You’re gonna live in one free room. I’ll carry some things out, and you will settle in there and do anything you want.”       “Thanks, Daddy, you’re awesome.”       “Although I’m saddened by what happened, that’s good you’re gonna live with me. I’m starting to understand how much I’ve missed you since you ran away from me and your mother.”       “I’ve got no place to go. I can only count on you.”       “Sure, sunshine, you can always count on me. I’m gonna do my best to help you.”       “Thanks, Dad, thank you so much.”       Anna hugs Maximilian with a slight smile touchingly, and he answers her back with pleasure and presses his beloved daughter to himself. At heart, the man does not believe that Daniel could cheat on the girl at his wish and would like to talk to either the present boyfriend of his daughter or her ex. However, the situation gets harder because of his amnesia, which is the reason why he does not remember anything and became a victim of the Spaniard named Blanca Moreno.       

***

      One week later. It’s about one hour o’clock. Daniel was finally allowed to go home, even if he should regularly visit a doctor to prevent any impairments from his condition. His condition got much better, and the headache keeps bothering him much less. All this time, Raquelle, Terrence, Natalia, Edward, Helene, and Peter were visiting him in the hospital and trying to help him remember everything. However, Daniel has not recalled anyone, but he keeps considering them familiar. As the doctor advised, he did not refuse these people’s help and accepted it, feeling comfortable enough with these people. But Blanca also tries to get him on his side and make him sure that she is right. Because of her determined actions and ineptitude to kiss and be tender, the man feels more and more uncomfortable.       Sometimes his doctor kicked Blanca out of the room when seeing her there. And Perkins silently thanked him for that, even if he did not tell him she called himself his fiancée. He says it to nobody. But he does not hide that he would be happy to speak to the sweet red-haired girl, Anna, who did not visit him and stopped talking to her friends. Maybe, Daniel remembered the girl’s name for a few seconds, but he immediately memorized her baby face and fiery-red hair. And his heart starts trembling nicely at the thought of the red-haired beauty, to whom he, alas, will hardly speak because of what he did.       As Daniel did not remember the home address, his friends decided to drive him there and help him get used to it. The men were on the way in Peter’s car, and the girls were in Raquelle’s car. After not a very long way, they finally come to Daniel’s house, where the silence and sadness have been set for the whole week.       “Wow, do you wanna say that’s my house?” Daniel asks, sitting in the passenger’s seat and looking at his own house surprisingly.       “Do I look like an idiot that would come to someone’s house and say it’s yours?” Peter asks, arching his eyebrows and gripping the steering wheel with both hands. “Of course, that mansion is yours! How cool it is!”       “Sick!”       “If you wonder how you got it, you said you got this house from your dead parents as a gift,” Terrence notices, sitting in the backseat.       “But as you said, it was empty then,” Edward adds, sitting next to Terrence. “And later, you earned money to buy everything you needed.”       “My gosh…” Daniel pronounces with a slight smile.       “Listen, don’t you actually remember that this house is yours?” Terrence wonders. “We thought you were supposed to remember it, at least very blurry.”       “Erm…” Daniel looks at his house better and starts to understand that he knows this place is familiar to him and connected with someone he knows. “I don’t know… Maybe… This place seems familiar to me…”       “Well, just something,” Peter nods confidently.       “And it reminds me of someone I probably know.”       “Who?”       “I don’t know… I can’t remember.”       “Do you mean your parents?” Edward assumes.       “Maybe… I… Remember something about them…”       Silence settles in the car, during which Peter starts knocking at the steering wheel, as if he is beating the rhythm of a song. Daniel starts to think these sounds are too familiar. He is surprised truly that almost everything around him makes him feel these feelings, but cannot remember even a small detail. That’s why the man feels much more uncomfortable.       “So, Perkins, will we stay here until tonight?” Peter asks, moving his eyes to Daniel. “Are you gonna leave? And if you want, I can leave the car here!”       “Yes, guys!” Edward exclaims. “Why we're sitting here!”       “Let’s get out,” Terrence says confidently, glancing at the window. “The girls have already done it!”       After shrugging, Edward, Terrence, Daniel, and Peter slowly put off their seat belts and leave the car of the blond, who turns off the motor and locks it with a key. Meanwhile, Natalia, Helene, and Raquelle are really standing next to Cameron's car and waiting for the men to go out.       “Anna hasn’t been answering our calls for the whole week,” Natalia says with anxiety. “It seems like she’s ignoring us.”       “Yeah,” Raquelle agrees, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Did she get so overwhelmed by what happened to Daniel?”       “And I kinda have a feeling that she isn’t even at home,” Helene assumes, looking for something on her black smartphone. “Anna doesn’t also answer the home number.”       “Oh, my gosh…” Natalia grabs her throat with a hand. “I feel we’re gonna have to help her come to herself. Otherwise, Anna is gonna get exhausted so that she isn’t able to take care of Daniel, who needs it so badly now.”       “Yeah, thank God, he has finally left the hospital and got a chance to talk to her. He wants it so badly… Remember how many times Daniel asked why Anna didn’t visit him.”       “And it’s definitely a good sign,” Raquelle says confidently. “I think his heart still remembers Anna and lets him know she’s very important to him.”       “Anna’s a very memorable girl,” Helene notices with a slight smile. “And she stands out to all of us thanks to her red hair.”       “Definitely.”       “I hope her care will help Daniel get well,” Natalia expresses hope. “Although he’s been released, he’s gonna take a long way to recovery. Which will take a lot of time.”       “The doctor said there had been much worse cases, and Daniel was very lucky. Because the consequences of the head trauma might be much worse.”       “I agree…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully.       The girls fall into silence for two seconds and look at each other with sadness in their eyes. Then Edward, Terrence, and Peter come to them, while Daniel looks at the house and around with interest, starting to recognize it slowly.       “How’s he?” Helene asks.       “Did he recall something when you were on the way?” Raquelle specifies, embracing herself with arms.       “He feels good,” Edward replies quietly. “He constantly says he finds everything familiar, but nothing special comes into his mind.”       “He even barely recognized his own house,” Terrence adds. “I mean, he’s trying to do it.”       “Yeah, it seems like, we’ve got a hard mission,” Natalia says thoughtfully, putting her hand on her forehead.       “Definitely…” Raquelle pronounces quietly.       “Trouble never comes alone… One thing happens after another.”       “I agree,” Edward agrees. “At first, we tolerated Connor’s mockeries, and now Perkins has gotten into something serious.”       “We would’ve better tolerated Connor’s tricks,” Terrence throws gloomily. “If we knew trouble would happen to Daniel.”       “Nevertheless, we must help him,” Peter concludes confidently. “I know it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna take a lot of time. And nobody’s gonna thank us. But Daniel will remember everything, early or late. He won't remain like this forever.”       “And don’t forget you should also talk to George,” Helene recalls. “So, he finds a way to solve the band issue.”       “We remember,” Edward nods. “We’re gonna call him today or tomorrow.”       “Oh, it’s all too complicated,” Terrence moans tiredly, running his hands over his face. “Too complicated…”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which everybody looks around with sad eyes.       “Okay, guys, why we’re standing here,” Helene sighs quietly, looking around. “Let’s go. Bring Daniel home and let him have a rest and get used to the house.”       Everybody nods and comes to Daniel, who is still standing next to Peter’s car and looking at his fantastic house, trying to make sure that it belongs to him.       “Daniel, let’s go!” Terrence says loudly, making a calling gesture. “Daniel! Come on!”       Daniel glances at his friends and follows all of them slowly and hesitantly, not stopping looking around and getting surprised that everything is so similar to him. A few moments later, they come to the hall door, and Natalia steps on something under the rug with a thin heel of her sandals that almost breaks, judging a disgusting squeak.       “Oops, seems like I stepped on something…” Natalia says thoughtfully, explores the floor with the sole of her sandal, squats down, folds back the rug lying against the hall door, and sees the keys under this one. “Look, the keys!”       Natalia takes the keys and gets up on her feet, looking at them closely and frowning slightly.       “How did they end up here?” Edward wonders.       “Yes, I didn’t know Daniel kept reserved keys under the rug,” Natalia says thoughtfully.       “I wonder since when?” Peter asks. “As long as I remember, Daniel has never done it.”       “Listen, guys, don’t you think something is not right here?” Raquelle asks hesitantly. “Nobody answers the home number, and the keys are under the rug… It’s kinda weird…”       “At least it’s too quiet here…” Edward replies thoughtfully.       “No, I don’t mean it… Erm…”       “Erm, can I look at the keys?” Daniel asks hesitantly and takes the keys that Natalia found from her hands. “Interesting…”       Daniel looks at the keys for two seconds, puts his hand in the pocket of his jeans later, and takes the same ones.       “The same…” Daniel pronounces surprisingly and frowns slightly. “Wow…”       “Try to open the door with them,” Terrence suggests.       “Open the door? Hm…”       Daniel comes to the door and looks at this for two seconds. The man is surprised truly when he picks up the necessary key immediately, gets it into a keyhole, and turns it as many times as it needs.       “I did it…” Daniel whispers in surprise.       “So, now you know how to open the hall door,” Edward shrugs.       “So, it’s really my house…”       “Then…” Peter pronounces thoughtfully. “Go inside… Look around…”       Daniel hesitates for two seconds and enters the house hesitantly, while the others look at each other and follow him slowly. They come to the large, spacious living room and start looking around. While Perkins finds this place more and more familiar and starts to be sure that good and bad things happened here, his friends get surprised that they do not see Anna, and it’s suspiciously quiet in the house.       “I didn’t get it, where’s Anna?” Edward frowns slightly. “I thought she’d be here.”       “Actually, I wanted to say I had a feeling that Anna wasn’t here…” Raquelle confesses thoughtfully.       “But where did she go?” Terrence throws his hands up.       “Maybe, she just went to buy something or walk?” Peter puts his hands on his hips.       “But why were the keys under the rug?”       “Maybe, it’s reserved?” Helene assumes.       “I wouldn’t personally do that,” Edward replies thoughtfully. “It would be called ‘take my keys, open the door, and take everything you want.’”       “If a stranger was here, neighbors would react immediately,” Peter replies confidently. “Once upon a time, a burglar tried to get into this place, but a neighbor saw it, called the police immediately, and contacted Daniel. I heard he had robbed many houses, but that’s good he got caught when trying to hack the locker of the hall door and break the glass of the window.”       “Yeah, we’ve gotta tell them what happened to Daniel,” Raquelle advises. “It would be awkward if they greeted him, and he asked who they were.”       “Yeah, we’ve gotta do it,” Terrence agrees, “And that’s good we’ve met nobody. That we brought Perkins home quietly…”       “Agree,” Helene agrees.       “Stop, guys!” Natalia exclaims, points at the small table standing next to the sofas, and comes to it. “Does it seem to me that a picture frame was placed on this table?”       “What?” Peter asks, comes to Natalia slowly, and looks at the table. “Yeah… The photo of Daniel and Anna… I do remember that the framed picture was placed here. A black one, I think…”       “But where’s that photo now?”       “I’d like to know it. I’d like to know what actually happened there. And where Anna is.”       “Hey, here’s the photo!” Terrence exclaims, standing aside, takes the broken frame from the floor, and shows it to the others. “Black frame…”       “Hm…” Helene says thoughtfully and takes the frame carefully to look at this better. “The glass is broken… And the frame is about to break…”       “Damn, what happened here?” Edward wonders. “The keys under the rug, the broken frame…”       “I’d say someone could find the keys under the rub and do everything they wanted,” Raquelle says, taking something from the table placed near the stairs.       “But there is no mess here,” Peter throws his hands up, looking around. “And nothing kind of disappeared…”       “I don’t know, but I don’t like all of this…”       “What a twist…” Helene exhales sharply.       A few moments later, the friends move their eyes to Daniel walking into his house slowly and looking at every single corner.       “You know, guys, I’m starting to realize that this is really my house…” Daniel confesses loudly from afar. “I feel like home…”       “Are you recalling something?” Natalia asks.       “Some pieces… I think there was a lot of fun at this house. As if someone was walking here or even running…”       “I guess, your friends did,” Helene assumes with a slight smile.       “I don’t know… But this is obviously my house. I orientate here well… I know what’s hidden in all the rooms… What’s placed everywhere…”       “I believe it’s a very good sign,” Raquelle says confidently with a slight smile. “You’re starting to recall everything slowly.”       “I hope… And yeah, I feel much better being here than in the hospital room… Where there was a smell of something disgusting.”       “Oh, yeah, we all hate hospital rooms,” Terrence laughs shyly. “I can’t personally stand the smell of drugs in that place. And hospital walls and sounds of machines drive me crazy.”       “That’s good the doctor made me sleep for a bigger part of the time. But to be honest, I feel pain in my whole body because of hospital beds…” Daniel massages the small of his back slightly. “That was tough…”       “I believe your bed would be much softer and more comfortable,” Peter assumes with a slight smile.       “I’d like to believe it. Believe that I’d be able to stay alone and have a good rest.”       “Well, you’re actually living not alone, but with Anna,” Edward replies a little hesitantly.       “Anna? Who’s Anna?”       “The red-haired girl with a baby face you always ask about.”       “Ah! Yeah… I always forget her name…”       “Don’t worry, Daniel,” Natalia says softly. “If you call us wrongly, it’s okay.”       “Honestly, I forgot all your names again,” Daniel laughs shyly and stops his eyes on Natalia. “You must be… Erm… Valeria…”       “Natalia. Try to memorize at least the fact that the name of the blonde with long hair is Natalia. I understand it’s hard for you to remember us, but…”       “Yeah… You… Stand out against the others…” Daniel moves his eyes to Peter. “Well, maybe, this blond does, too… What’s his name… Erm… Pedro…”       “I’m Peter,” Peter says amicably. “Memorize at least Natalia and me if you memorize us thanks to our hair color.”       “I’ll try…”       The owners of dark hair, Raquelle, Edward, Terrence, and Helene, look at each other, while Daniel, frowning slightly, looks at them closely.       “Hey, why didn’t that red-haired girl go to the hospital with you?” Daniel asks.       “Honestly, we don’t know,” Raquelle sighs quietly. “Anna turned off her phone and broke contact with all of us.”       “And we don’t know why,” Helene adds. “I mean, we suspect she’s deeply shocked by what happened to you. But we didn’t think Anna would love to leave us and disappear nobody knows where.”       “So, won’t I see her anymore?” Daniel rounds his eyes.       “We don’t know, Daniel,” Edward shakes his head. “As we said, Anna is living with you, but she is not here.”       “Are there some of her things here?”       “Sure!” Peter exclaims. “She does live with you!”       “Yeah, but there’s nothing that would belong to her in any of the rooms. And she is not also in the house.”       At first, nobody pays attention to Daniel’s words, but then they look at each other with widely open eyes and shake as if they got electrocuted.       “Wait, what do you mean, ‘there’s nothing that would belong to her?’” Helene jabs. “You’re sure about it?”       “Yes, I am,” Daniel shrugs. “I found only men’s clothes. Mine, I guess…”       “And some cosmetics?” Natalia asks. “Well… Some bottles, vials, hairbrushes…”       “Nope… The table with the mirror is empty.”       “Oh, damn…” Raquelle swears quietly.       “You can go to the second floor and see. Go to the room. I left the door open.”       Everybody goes up to the second floor of the house, while Daniel follows them hesitantly, wondering why they are so sure that a certain girl lived with him. And after entering the room, they see that the room really got kind of empty.       “Girls, there’s nothing on her table!” Helene exclaims, pointing at the table placed next to the bed with widely open eyes.       “Right!” Natalia confirms. “There was a bag of cosmetics, hairbrushes, nail polishes, hair sprays, curling tongs, hair straightener, and much more.”       “My God, where is that?” Raquelle wonders, staring at the empty dressing table surprisingly.       “No, girls, don’t say Anna took her stuff and left,” Edward says, putting his hands on his hips.       “Everything says about it, Edward,” Natalia replies thoughtfully. “Anna’s cosmetics couldn’t disappear for nothing! It was always here!”       “Hey, look, there are more broken frames!” Edward squats down near the bed, takes two broken frames and some pics of torn photos, and gets up. “And tons of torn photos.”       “Are all the photos torn?” Helene gets horrified, coming to the bunch of torn photos, squats down, and puts some pieces together. “Anna and Daniel were in all of them. And everything’s torn in pieces!”       “Listen, I understand nothing!” Raquelle frowns slightly. “What happened here? Why are photos of Seymour and Perkins torn? Where are her cosmetics?”       “I believe she could leave the keys under the rug,” Peter assumes, frowning slightly. “Someone was supposed to close the hall door when the house was empty for one week.”       “You wanna say she really left the house?” Terrence wonders.       “A possibility is one hundred percent.”       “But why? What could happen?”       “Was Anna so shocked by Daniel’s amnesia that she took her stuff and let nobody knows where?” Edward wonders. “And ripped all the photos!”       “And said nothing to anyone?” Helene frowns slightly.       “No, it can’t be the truth,” Raquelle shakes her head. “Anna couldn’t do it! She does know Daniel needs her care. You can’t get mad at someone just because they have amnesia and ask who you are.”       “Seymour was our main hope,” Natalia says quietly with sadness in her eyes. “Daniel wanted to talk to her so badly, but she left. Left and said nothing!”       And while everybody wonders what could make Anna leave the house, Daniel enters the room slowly.       “I’ve said there was nothing there,” Daniel says quietly.       “There’s only one way to make absolutely sure about it,” Helene says confidently and moves her eyes to Daniel, pointing at the door that leads to dressing room placed against her. “Hey, Daniel, could you open the dressing room?”       “And show us what’s in the drawers of the dressing table,” Natalia says, pointing at the dressing table. “Just open the drawers. What if something is left in them…”       Daniel looks at everybody with mistrust but comes to the door of the dressing room and opens it. The friends only see the man’s clothes and nothing that would belong to Anna.       “Gosh, nothing is left,” Raquelle shakes her head.       “Look, there’s also nothing in the drawers,” Edward says confidently when Daniel comes to the dressing table and opens all the drawers. “They’re all empty.”       “So, Anna really took her stuff and left this house,” Peter concludes thoughtfully.       “But why?” Natalia wonders. “Why did Anna break contact with us and leave this house?”       “This girl is starting to scare me a little,” Helene confesses with anxiety.       Listening to what his friends say, Daniel gets much more confused because he does not still understand who his real girlfriend is: either Blanca, who often wraps next to him but presses on him morally, or Anna, who he remembers only by her hair color and, but who makes his heart tremble tenderly.       “So, is my girlfriend living with me?” Daniel specifies.       “She used to,” Raquelle replies thoughtfully. “Now she doesn’t do it now.”       “So, am I not able to talk to her?”       “Not just you,” Peter replies quietly. “Anna broke contact with all of us. But we don’t know why.”       “What a twist…” Daniel throws a little sad look aside. “Sorry… I wanted to talk to her so badly… Maybe, she’d help me recall something…”       “Listen, Daniel, can’t you really remember anything about her?” Natalia wonders. “Well, except her hair…”       “No… She seems familiar to me, but I don’t understand why.”       “We believe you had talked to her before you lost the memory,” Terrence assumes. “Maybe, you know something about the talk?”       “Even if I had a talk with her before the memory loss, I can’t remember that.”       “Okay,” Raquelle says quietly. “Then try to remember what happened to you. How did you end up where you were found? What did you do? Who you talked with? Any detail might help us!”       “I don’t know what happened to me, but I do know someone threatened me,” Daniel confesses thoughtfully, crossing his arms over his chest.       “Threatened?” Helene rounds her eyes.       “Yeah… It seems like… I was wanted… To be killed…” Daniel glances at his bandaged hand. “When I look at this hand, I start to think someone tried to give me pain.”       “Do you know the one, who threatened you?” Terrence asks.       “I don’t know, I don’t remember…” Daniel shakes his head. “But I’m absolutely sure someone wanted to do something bad to me.”       “So, can’t you even call some special sighs of the one to attack you?” Natalia wonders. “I dunno… Moles, scars, tattoos…”       “And how many people could attack you?” Edward asks. “Was it a company? Or just one person?”       “It seems like there was one person,” Daniel replies hesitantly, embracing himself with both arms.       “Did they threaten you verbally or with a gun?”       “I don’t know, guys. I’ve been trying to remember what happened on that day, but I can’t do it. But the fact that I was tried to be killed is correct.”       “Damn, don’t you actually remember anything?” Peter wonders. “It could help us find out what happened to you, and how you ended up at that place! We need to know how to help you get your memory back. We can’t always do something with the thought – all or nothing.”       “I swear, I don’t know,” Daniel shakes his head slowly. “But if I knew it, I’d surely say.”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which everybody looks at each other.       “Okay, guys, what do we do now?” Helene asks. “Two hard cases: Anna, who left nobody knows where and stopped speaking to us, and Daniel, who doesn’t know what happened to him but is sure he was tried to be killed.”       “Yeah, I don’t even know what to start with…” Natalia sighs tiredly.       “Listen, maybe, we leave Daniel alone?” Raquelle suggests. “May he have a rest, eat, and change clothes… The doctor asked us not to let him get tense and to make sure he has a good rest.”       “So, I won’t hold you,” Daniel shrugs and smiles slightly, putting his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “Thank you so much for driving me home. I doubt I would’ve done it without your help.”       “We became friends to help each other,” Natalia notices with a shy smile.       “Okay, guys, c’mon,” Helene says quietly. “We can go to a quiet place and talk there.”       “Good idea,” Edward agrees confidently and cracks a slight smile at Daniel. “Get well, buddy! And remember everything quickly!”       “Thanks,” Daniel thanks. “Bye.”       Daniel leads everybody out of the room with a slight smile and hears a couple of nice wishes from them. After this, everybody leaves his house, getting horrified by the fact that they got two problems: Anna’s mysterious escape and the mission to help Daniel get his memory back and find out what happened to him.       

***

      Anna has lived with her father, Maximilian, for a week. The girl is glad he is next to her and supports her, but she gets upset that the man defends Daniel, even if she told him about his betrayal. She does not think of his amnesia. She does not think of pity. She is obsessed with jealousy and the insult that she got after seeing that kiss. Because he allegedly had her wrapped around his finger. These negative thoughts cloud her mind and do not let her understand that it was not the best decision of hers. And Daniel just became a victim, the condition of who was insolently used…       All this time, Anna has not spoken to her friends, but she has not locked herself in four walls to cry all day long. She is now walking slowly in some unpopular places in the city. However, the warm weather and the warmth of the shoots of the summer sun rising high above the city and lights it up cannot make her happy. And seeing some happy lovers walking together, hugging one another and kissing, Anna barely holds herself down not to cry because she thinks that she is going to walk alone outside and cannot press herself to her beloved man with the feeling of tenderness and safety.       Yes, her father can do it. But it’s different. Nothing can replace moments when your beloved man generously shares their love and care and makes you feel like you have wings on your back. Anna felt the same when she was walking in the city along with Daniel. But now she feels like a little, unprotected girl, who does not have a man’s strong shoulder. She is like a little child, who lost their parents and the belief that they would defend them and make them sure that nothing threatened them.       Some time later, Anna gets sick of walking in the city and decides to come back to her father’s home. The girl, paying no attention to the people going by her, enters the building, goes up to the floor that she needs, comes to the apartment, and finds out that the door is not locked with a key when she wants to unlock it. She carefully pushes it off and locks it after she enters the apartment and hears Maximilian talking to someone and laughing quietly at something. But she does not pay attention to the unexpected visitor when she comes to the living room.       “Oh, honey, you’re back,” Maximilian says with a slight smile, coming to Anna and kissing her on the cheek.       “Yes, as you see,” Anna shrugs without emotions. “But I thought you were at work or went somewhere.”       “I just came back.”       “Ah, okay. I see.”       Anna looks aside with sadness in her eyes, while Maximilian sighs heavily and shakes his head.       “By the way, sweetie, we have a visitor,” Maximilian says, pointing at the man sitting on the sofa with his back turned to him and thinking of something with a cup of coffee in his hands.       The stranger moves his eyes to Anna, who looks at him with her dead, red eyes. This man at the age of thirty or thirty-five does not seem to be trustworthy, despite having a presentable look. Luxury, perfectly done brown hair, a careful dark bristle, almost new pants with a sole-colored shirt, and brilliantly cleaned shoes. His back is straight, his manners are perfect, and his smile is stunning but far not true. He spreads coldness and does not look like someone could trust him with their life. There is contempt and arrogance in his gray, piercing eyes, and an evil sneer shows up on his face.       “Julian?” Anna pronounces surprisingly.       “Hello, Anna,” Julian replies with restraint, puts his cup on the table, gets up from the sofa, and comes to Anna. “It’s been a while.”       “I didn’t expect to see you here.”       Julian answers Anna’s amicable hug with reluctance just because the girl expresses the initiative, frowning strongly and rolling his eyes. But when they step away from each other a few seconds later, Julian smiles at Anna again and looks at her with interest.       “Wow, you are such a beauty,” Julian notices confidently, holding Anna’s hands. “Every day makes you much prettier.”       “You become much more adult,” Anna smiles slightly.       “It could not be more!” Julian laughs kind of coldly. “I turned twenty-five years!”       “Thirty-five? Wow, how fast time flies.”       “The one that should not care about age is you, my darling. You looked like a teenager when you were eighteen, and you still do.”       “Thanks, Julian, it’s nice to hear it from such a serious man,” Anna thanks amicably.       “When there is such a beautiful girl near me, it’s impossible to resist and say no compliments.”       “Julian…”       “By the way, when you were not here, I was talking to your father,” Julian says thoughtfully. “Mr. Seymour told me you are now living with him.”       “Yes, it’s true,” Anna shrugs. “Again.”       “That’s great!” Julian smiles widely. “I hope you and I will meet more often.”       “Sure. I’d be happy. You and I haven’t met for so long that I forgot when it happened the last time.”       “It’s alright, we will fix it. In the nearest time.”       “By the way, how is Mr. Potter doing? Father said he didn’t get any pieces of news about him for ages.”       “My father is doing well and absolutely fine, but he has lately been very busy. I said it to Mr. Seymour when he asked me.”       “I’m glad. But why did you decide to visit my father? Your visit became a great surprise.”       “Erm, I…” Julian stumbles a little, stroking his chin. “Mr. Seymour and I just met outside, and he invited me to drink tea. So, I agreed with pleasure… I told him about my father, about my hard job… And he shared the latest news with me.”       “I think you could come here with Mr. Potter somehow,” Anna suggests amicably. “We’d drink a cup of coffee and talk about everything that’s happened to us…”       “With pleasure, sweetie,” Julian nods confidently with a sly smile. “Father and I would be very happy to spend time with you. I hope Mrs. Seymour would love to join us. Your parents and my father have a good relationship, and I’ve known you since the early years.”       “Yes, Julian,” Maximilian agrees with a slight smile when Julian moves his eyes to him. “Despite nothing, the Potters and the Seymours will always be best friends.”       “Yeah,” Anna pronounces with a slight smile.       “Oh, let’s sit down,” Maximilian asks, pointing at the sofa. “Why are we standing like strangers? Come on! Julian, Anna…”       Anna and Julian look at each other with slight smiles and sit on the sofa: the girl sits next to Maximilian, and the man sits in front of them.       “By the way, Anna, I noticed that you are very sad,” Julian says without emotions, locking fingers. “Do you have some problems?”       “Yes, there’s something…” Anna replies hesitantly, tucking a strand of hair behind an ear.       “But what happened?”       “Personal. Problems in my personal life.”       “Wow… But what’s wrong?”       “Don’t pay attention to me… I’m gonna overcome it somehow.”       “Why?” Julian wonders, pretending that he is madly worried about Anna’s problems. “I do really care about what’s happening to you and want to know what bothers you. Maybe, I can help you somehow…”       “No, Julian, don’t think about it,” Anna cracks a smile. “You’ve got many problems, and I don’t wanna whine…”       “No, Anna, don’t say it.” Julian takes Anna’s hands, looking into her red eyes confidently. “You’re my close person, and I worry about you so badly. Despite nothing, I truly love you and wish you the best.”       “I know.”       “Then share your sadness with me. I’m sure I’m the only one to know how to help you.”       “Indeed, Anna,” Maximilian says softly, caressing Anna’s head. “You’ve known Julian for a bigger part of your life, and your mother and I have befriended Julian’s family for many years. This man deserves to know about your problems.”       “Please, sweetie, tell me,” Julian shows pity. “I can help you because I know you very well. Nobody else knows you better than me.”       “Okay…” Anna sighs heavily. “I’ve just got problems in my relationship with my man. I mean, my ex-boyfriend.”       “You broke up with him and are worried about it?”       “Well, actually, yes…” Anna sighs heavily.       “Oh, I am very sorry…” Julian replies a little falsely, looking at Anna with a sly and unkind grin. “My darling… How could that stupid one leave such a wonderful girl? Where were his eyes and brains?”       “I don’t know, Julian… But he betrayed me… Betrayed me the way nobody else had done it.” Anna sniffs quietly, feeling that her eyes are wet from tears. “I did everything for him, but he eventually cheated on me with another girl…”       “Stinker! How could he dare?”       “I feel so bad… I loved him so much that my life is deprived of any meaning. I can’t eat, I can’t breathe, I can’t sleep… I just wanna die. Die not to feel this unbearable pain.”       “No, no, Anna, come on!” Julian exclaims with widely open eyes, caressing Anna’s hand softly. “Fear God! Think of your father! About how hurtful it is for him to hear it.”       “But it’s the truth. I lost a part of me. That man was the whole world to me, and I was ready to sacrifice anything for him. I demanded nothing from him. I was always sweet and caring… I tried not to fight with him… I was ready to take any of his weaknesses. I didn’t even make him marry me. I was truly happy with what he gave me.”       “I completely know how hurt you feel. The same story happened to me. There was a girl, for whom I was also doing everything. I made all of her caprices come true, tried to be a perfect man, and gave her what she wanted… I was doing everything! But that thankless one gave a damn about my feelings and betrayed me. She cheated on the one I considered close to me. If only you know what kind of pain I felt. I thought my life would be over. But time and good company cure any kind of soulful pain.”       “It’s easier for men to survive some things. But it’s much harder for girls.”       “No, Anna, it’s not the truth. We all feel the same. And I’m assuring you that you are going to come to yourself and regret being so sad because of the one not to deserve you.”       “I do regret it. I hate myself for constantly thinking of my love for that man and not being able to fall out of love with him immediately.”       “You will forget him, you will see it. And I would be happy to help you forget about your trouble and start to enjoy your life, which may be very interesting. I will do my best for you to stop crying because of that stinker.”       “No, Julian… Nothing will help me…”       “If you think so, nothing will.”       “I still love that man,” Anna confesses in a shaking voice and sniffs quietly. “Despite the disgusting thing he did to me.”       “That’s wrong, Anna, you will get yourself exhausted if you think of that stinker. You should distract yourself and do something. Well, let’s go out and have fun somewhere together? I promise you will have a lot of fun with me! Nobody would distract you better.”       “Yes, Anna, why don’t you walk with Julian?” Maximilian nods confidently, moving his eyes to Anna. “I’m sure you’d forget about the breakup with that guy for a while next to him.”       “Not now,” Anna replies without emotions. “I don’t wanna have fun and do something.”       “But, Anna, you will bring yourself to the hole,” Julian notices. “You know how hard it is going to be to get out of depression. And if you distract yourself a little, you will come to yourself some time later.”       “Go, Anna,” Maximilian encourages. “I completely trust Julian and know he can distract you. You should recall your old contacts with those you’ve known for ages.”       “Don’t make me, Dad, don’t do it…”       “You should prove to that stinker that he does not deserve you,” Julian replies confidently. “Betrayers cannot be forgiven. I’m against them and would never forgive the lady, who cheated on me with another man. Maybe, your ex would not know it, but you would feel very good at the thought that he did not make you suffer and break down. A breakup with a bad guy means a time of nice changes. Time to close one book and open a new, more interesting one, in which there would be only good things. Did you notice that many girls get better after a breakup! And how much women change after a divorce! After living for half of life with a stinker, they get freedom and decide to start it over again.”       “Julian is absolutely right, daughter,” Maximilian says softly, caressing Anna’s head. “You should start with something. Tell yourself not to stick to it. You got a little sad, cried, and complained, and that’s enough. It’s time to brace yourself. Maybe, someday, you will meet someone to be better than that guy. And then get married and give birth to children…”       “Agree, Anna. Your father would never advise a bad thing. And I’m ready to give you all the necessary support and be your shoulder. You and I are close friends, aren’t we? But friends do always help each other.”       Anna reflects on these words for a few seconds, thinking of the fateful kiss between Daniel and Blanca at some moment. And she decides to accept Julian’s offer. For revenge. She wants to revenge on Daniel for his betrayal, even if he will never know it.       “Okay, I agree to walk with you,” Anna says with a slight smile. “Maybe… You’re right… And… I’d get better and forget my pain.”       “Wonderful!” Julian smiles slyly, rubbing his hands for two seconds. “You made the right decision.”       “But remember that my mood is not so good to have fun.”       “I get it. But I promise I will be doing my best for you to forget that thankless pig.”       “You’re right… He’s really a thankless pig. For who I did everything.”       “Think I was sent to you by destiny itself. To make you feel better. To melt your heart and open it for someone to deserve such a wonderful girl much more.”       Anna says nothing and just smiles shyly, while Julian looks at the girl with a sly look full of coldness. However, she does not pay attention to the fact that this man can make her feel anxiety, fear, and frost on her skin.       “Go somewhere right now, then,” Maximilian suggests with a slight smile. “And I will stay home and work on a computer.”       “I want to do this,” Julian replies confidently. “I am now absolutely free and can spend the rest of the day with your daughter.”       “Maybe, we talk in my room?” Anna suggests hesitantly. “So, you tell me about your life… Maybe, it can cheer me up…”       “No, Anna, I am insisting that you go with me right now,” Julian says more severely. “Walls always lead you to yearning and depression.”       “That’s bad you didn’t come earlier. I wouldn’t have gone to the city alone.”       “It would be fine if you went somewhere again.”       “Go, Anna, go,” Maximilian insists confidently with a slight smile. “You will feel better if you spend time with Julian.”       “Come on, Anna, go!” Julian insists harshly. “It’s time to show up and get ready for a new life. New relationship.”       “Okay,” Anna gives up under the pressure, inclining her head down. “I agree.”       “That’s awesome!” Julian claps his hands with a wide smile. “First, we can go to one incredible place. Fresh salad, delicious lobster tails, and a glass of expensive wine would help you get better.”       “As you wish. I don’t care.”       “Alright…” Julian gets up from the sofa and fixes the collar of his black shirt. “Thank you for a good talk, Mr. Seymour.”       “Come with Norman next time,” Maximilian replies confidently. “And I will call Lilian, so we have a wonderful dinner.”       “I will tell Father your wish.” Julian tightly shakes Maximilian by the hand. “And I promise I will take care of your daughter.”       “I trust you and put my great hopes in you.”       “Do not doubt, I shall make sure that Anna forgets that betrayer. That she thinks about something different.”       “Good luck.”       “Thanks, Mr. Seymour,” Julian gives a sly smile to Maximilian.       “Go, Anna,” Maximilian says to Anna standing next to him. “Have a good time.”       “Thanks, Daddy,” Anna replies without emotions.       Maximilian hugs Anna amicably and leads her and Julian to the hall door. The girl takes her purse and crosses her arms over her chest, and the man holds her by the back, showing he is well aware of how to behave toward women. Mr. Seymour opens the door and smiles slightly, as he watches his daughter leave the apartment with this man, who spreads the coldness, looks at her with a not very kind look, and smiles at her with an evil grin and contempt, as if he thinks of doing something bad that Anna may regret for the rest of her life.