Reminiscent

Chapter Twelve

"Halia" Dad greets with a smile while swinging open the front door of his apartment.

"Where's Evie?" I push past him quickly, searching his apartment quickly.

"you remember Evie?" Dad lowers his voice as Chace enters the apartment after me.

I hear Chace quickly explaining what's happened to my father.

I follow the sound of the television, where I find a small child sitting on the couch, looking up at the screen. She had brown hair and hazel eyes, the biggest smile and light olive skin.

"Halia" dad says from behind me, "meet Evelyn, your daughter..."

The girl looks up at me, her face lights up. Suddenly something happens inside me. Something I can't articulate. Something equivalent to

"Momma" the girl smiled.

"She's mine?" My eyes fill with tears.

"Well, fifty percent" Chace half-smiles while picking up Evie. "Do you want to hold her?"

I nod my head slowly as he puts the baby in my arms. A pump of serotonin is released within my body as the toddler places her hands on my face. I held Evie in my arms tightly, I never wanted to let her go.

"Who came up with her name?" I wonder.

"well, one of the doctors that delivered her was named Evelyn" Chace starts slowly.

"one of the doctors?" I repeat.

"It was a complicated birth" Daniel's voice announces from behind me.

I turn around to face him.

"were you there?" I ask.

He responds with a nod.

Suddenly Chace's smile drops.

"I'm going to get Evie's bottle" he says before walking off to the kitchen.

Something upset him within an instant, something to do with Daniel being there but I don't get why he would be jealous of that unless he's jealous that Daniel was there and he...

"Chace wasn't there, was he?" I realise looking down at the child on my lap.

"No" dad slowly shakes his head.

"he wasn't allowed, with a birth that complicated he would have just gotten in the way" Daniel explains.

"I think I love her" I admit, looking into my baby's eyes, "I know I just met her but I know I love her so much"

That's when Chace returns into the room, taking a seat beside me, with the baby's bottle in his hand.

"you always said she was your lucky charm" Chace admits. "she was born the 4th of the 4th"

I turn my head to face him, looking into his eyes. There's something safe about them. Something so familiar about him. I think I trust him with my life. I know that makes no sense but I do.

"4 is my lucky number" I smile.

"I know" he smiles back.

Chace and I glance at each other for a few seconds, exchanging looks of comfort. I'm the first to look away, hitting my lip nervously.

"I've got an idea" I announce.

"shoot," Chace says.

"I want to go home with Evie" I tell them.

"uhh Halia," Daniel disapproves, "I don't think that's a good idea"

"I think it's time I rejoin everyone in 2021" I admit.

"...I don't see why not" dad smiles "After all she is your daughter"

"Chace?" I look at him.

"I don't have a problem with it" he nods. "Actually I think it's perfect"

"Thank you, thank you" I grin with excitement.

"When would you like to come home?" Chace asks.

"Is tonight too soon?" I cross my fingers.

He smiles.

"Tonight is good"

"Daniel let's give the kids some privacy" dad says while they walk into the next room.

I look over to Chace.

"I've been getting my memories back, you know" I start slowly.

"You have?"

"Just small glimpses of the last six years" I explain, "I remember our wedding...can you help me make sense of what I've been seeing?"

He nods slowly "of course"

"How did we meet?" I ask him.

"well it was early spring and you were with...your ex"

"Dean?" I raise my brows.

Chace's eyes widen.

"You remember Dean?" He lowers his voice.

I furrow my brows in confusion.

"What did he do?" I ask.

"What do you remember about him?"

"Just how we met" I shrug. "At a party...why does everyone go weird when I say his name?"

Chace gulps nervously.

He sighs.

"I won't lie to you, Hellbound" he admits, "Dean isn't...or wasn't a good person. Right now you don't need to know the specifics but just know this: he wasn't a good guy. He never treated you right...you and I started dating not long after you two broke up. you said you wanted someone who would teach you to ice skate and play poker"

"What did we do for our first date?" I asked.

"for our first date we went to the carnival, we ate cotton candy and went go-carting we went on a Ferris wheel"

"and how long ago did we...." I pause. "lose her?"

Chace looks away, not wanting me to see the sadness in his eyes. However, I can still hear his pain in his voice.

"Six months ago...the doctors called it a midterm miscarriage. five months pregnant and supposedly out of the danger zone...or so we thought" Chace then looks up and smiles at Evie who bounces on my knee. "You weren't...dealing with it and I wasn't much help...so you dropped Evie off here and I went to Boston to stay with my sister. Which is where I was the night of your accident"

"How did I end up on that Highway, Chace?" I hold my breath.

He shrugs.

"I don't know, Halia" Chace admits, "I don't think it was intentional if that's what you think"

"Daniel seems to think so and he was there"

"Daniel...is Daniel. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"How else could have I gotten hit, Chace?"

He sighs "I don't know, Halia"

I look down at the baby then back up to Chace.

"How different am I to...her? The girl you're married to?"

I don't think it's fair for me to assume that I'm the Halia he knew when I don't think that girl is inside me at all. I feel like she's a doppelgänger. A double. Just some girl that looks like me that has been living my life for the last six years.

"you're the same Halia that I married" he starts, "you've just been through less pain"

"What happened to her?" I lower my voice to a whisper.

Chace looks at me with an immense amount of pain in his eyes. I almost regret asking. Seeing Chace's response fills my body with fear and worry. How can a question about my life hurt another person so much? What the hell happened to me in the last six years? Something must have happened. Something that changed me. Broke me. Tore me. Gored me. How else can all this be explained?

"More then you can possibly imagine" he struggles to say without his voice breaking, "Let's go home"