Chapter 77 Pieces of the Past
BELLA
The diary sits heavy in my hands, its leather cover worn and familiar in a way that stirs something deep inside me. My fingers hesitate on the edge of the first page, trembling slightly. The truth everything I’ve lost, everything I need to know is in these pages.
I exhale shakily and open it, the faint scent of ink and old paper curling into the air. My eyes catch on the first entry, the handwriting mine but distant, like a ghost of someone I used to be.
Dear Diary,
It’s a real shock. You won’t believe this Michael is about to get married. After everything we’ve been through, he’s marrying Vivian, my colleague. My colleague! She even claims to be the younger sister of David Copperfield. I feel like such a fool. All these years, I thought he loved me. I thought we had something real. But no, I was just someone to pass the time with.
The words stab into my chest. Michael? Who is Michael? And Vivian? The names feel familiar, like whispers in the back of my mind, but I can’t place them. My fingers flip to the next page, and my heart races as the story unfolds further.
Dear Diary,
You won’t believe it I’m married. To David Copperfield. Yes, that David Copperfield. The most powerful man in the city, feared and respected in equal measure. I didn’t even know it was him when we got married. I did it to spite Michael and to save my father. The money from the contract marriage was my only hope.
But there’s something else David has a son. A son he’s hidden from the world. No one knows who the mother is, and when I asked, the look he gave me… It was terrifying.
I sit back, my hands gripping the edges of the diary as a wave of nausea washes over me. Contract marriage? Hidden son? Fear grips me as the lines between my present and my past blur. My vision swims, but I force myself to keep reading.
Another entry catches my eye, the words scrawled in haste, the ink smudged as though written in panic.
Dear Diary,
She’s back. Lizzy. I feel her everywhere. I saw her today or at least, I think I did. Her smirk. Her eyes. It’s like she’s haunting me. Is she back to destroy me? I told Elowen about it. She said to be careful, to watch my back, but I can’t stop shaking.
And now, on top of everything else, I’m pregnant. I don’t want David to know. What if he doesn’t want the baby? What if he doesn’t love me? What if… he never really did? I’m sorry, my child. I have no choice but to keep this from him.
My breath hitches. Pregnant? Lizzy? Who is she? Questions claw at my mind as my chest tightens. I flip the pages frantically, trying to piece it all together. The final entry stops me cold.
Dear Diary,
I saw it with my own eyes. David. With Lizzy. In our bed. The way he touched her, the way she moaned his name it broke me. I ran, my heart shattered into a million pieces, and then… the headlights. The car. The blood. I remember lying there, the life draining out of me. He betrayed me. Everything we had, everything I thought we were it was all a lie.
The journal slips from my fingers, hitting the floor with a muted thud. My head spins as fragmented memories flash before my eyes: David’s hands on Lizzy’s body, their laughter, my own scream as I bolted from the house. The blinding lights of the car. The pain. The blood.
I clutch my chest, gasping for air as the pieces finally fall into place. The betrayal. The heartbreak. The lies.
And then, clarity.
“My memories are back.”