Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

Ophelia

Present time . . .

The song ends, pulling me back into the room, back to reality. Keane is still in his chair, his eyes on me, and for a moment, I wonder if he remembers. If that flicker I saw earlier was more than just wishful thinking.

“This . . . you composed it after our first kiss. Do you remember it?” I ask, my voice barely steady.

He stares at me for a long time before saying, “Maybe.”

That’s a strange answer of course. Very strange because you either remember or you don’t, but I don’t push.

I pull out my phone, scrolling through folders until I find the pictures from that day. They’re stored safely in the cloud, a tiny part of me hoping they might spark something. Anything.

Kneeling next to him, I hold the phone out and swipe through the images. Each photo feels like a time capsule, a glimpse into a life that now feels worlds away. “Look,” I say softly, trying to keep my tone light. “Here you are. With your guitar.”

The first few pictures are of him immersed in the music, his fingers gliding over the strings, his head angled slightly as if the rest of the world had fallen away, leaving only the melody. As I swipe to the next one, his breathing changes. At first, it’s barely noticeable—a catch, a hesitation—but then it grows uneven, unsteady, like the rise of a wave he can’t stop.

Bingo. The realization slams into me. It’s not the lost memories pulling him under, not even the missing pieces of us. It’s the music. The one constant that defined him, the thing that was always there when everything else wasn’t.

Music wasn’t just part of his life—it was his essence, his escape, the thing that made him who he is. It was his first love and not that I ever tried to compete against it, but I could never be on the same level.

Obviously now that it’s out of reach, he’s losing his everloving mind. If he can’t have it back, a way to play it, to bleed his emotions and deal with his demons. What’s left for him?

I want to say “Me,” but do I want to be back in this kind of relationship again?