Forget Me Not

By Addie Lynn Co

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © Addie Lynn C. Co, 2014

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Book design by Clarissa G. Ines

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Prologue

Rianne saw a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, all pretty and dressed up. She checked her image one last time and grabbed the car keys, rushing to her car.

She had never felt this sense of urgency before. She knew she had to hurry down to a place. There was somewhere she needed to be. Someone was waiting for her. She had to get there, and she had to get there as fast as she could.

She never caught a glimpse of the clock but she knew time was running out. She needed to hurry.

That someone might no longer be there.

That someone might not wait for her. What is taking me so long? The drive seems to be taking forever. Am I almost there? How long is the road to my destination? She felt the urgency getting the best of her, making her anxious.

Rianne drove past four red lights and one yellow light, stepping on the gas and accelerating further. She almost hit a car but, fortunately, managed to just elicit loud honking and cursing from the other driver. Nothing could stop her for longer than two seconds and she never thought she could drive this fast.

Then, the ringing of her phone somehow got her all flustered and gushing.

About what?

She did not know but she could feel herself getting all giggly. She stepped on the gas again with nothing in mind but the yearning to reach her destination as fast as possible.

Her phone kept ringing.

She should look to see who was calling. It might be that someone. She should ask that person to wait for her. She was almost there. She took her eyes off the road for a mere second.

BANG!!! BBEEEEEPPP!!!

Rianne heard the loud collision of her car with another vehicle, glass shattering all around her, her head hitting a hard object that she had no way of identifying. She felt herself let out a deep sigh. Her eyes were closed but her ears were alert, allowing her to hear the loud, endless honking of a truck.

The chaos and pain did not stop her from thinking of that someone who was waiting for her.

How could I tell that person to stay put? How could I let that someone know I would be there? She tried to move but couldn’t. She made a mental note to call that someone as soon as she got out of this mess.

She tried to clear her head and concentrate on how to get free but all she could do was listen to the grating honk of the truck’s horn. It lasted for what seemed like five more seconds before it finally faded out.

She felt herself falling into the darkness of the unknown as she opened her car door and hit the ground with a thud.

People around her started clapping. She opened her eyes and realized she was still on the plane from Los Angeles that had just landed in Manila. All the passengers were happy about the smooth landing but the majority of them were overseas foreign workers who were ecstatic to finally be home and see their loved ones.

Rianne, on the other hand, was unsure of what to feel.

Her heart was still pounding. Waking up from that dream always made her paranoid and scared. Even though she dreamed the same dream a million times, it always felt like the first time.

She was finally home but where was she supposed to start?

She tried to remember who that someone was and thought that maybe she should give him, or maybe her, a call but how could I do that if I wasn’t sure if he or she even existed?

Chapter 1

It had been six months since the accident, but despite the much-needed respite in the States, the memories Rianne lost – two years worth of images, feelings, thoughts – still hadn’t returned. Two precious years had been erased from her memory. She felt as if she was twenty-five again. No one dared to fill in the blanks, not even her two best friends, Alyssa Ignacio and Jason Santiago.

Why only those two years? What really happened to her during that time? Was it terrible? Happy? Sad? Will someone tell her the truth and put together the missing pieces of the puzzle? Or will she forever be living in darkness and just continue her existence without any recollection of those two years?

Rianne came back because she figured she was never going to remember anything, and running away from her life wasn’t going to help in any way. So she decided to face the music and maybe even learn to dance to the rhythm.

Somehow, she wanted to make herself believe she was going to be okay and that she was fine without those memories. But she couldn’t deny she was not. She wanted those memories back even if it meant pain or extreme sadness. She wanted to be complete.

She went straight to her apartment from the airport and as she looked around the place she abandoned, she felt happy to finally be back to her small but definitely not lonely apartment. Finding it ready to welcome her back after all these months made her think it was worth going back to her old life. Everything was in place. There were photos of her with her two best friends, her family, and some people at college parties. Were the pictures really this few? She was hoping she could find some clues but there were none.

Before all became hazy, this apartment was her sanctuary from work, where she could relax and do whatever she wanted. She liked having her own space and that made her feel in control of her life. Now, the familiarity of the surroundings and the things in it made her feel as if she knew herself completely and that she didn’t have to pretend she was okay.

She looked around and saw that nothing was out of place. It was still the way she remembered it. She felt safe here and no one would judge or pity her for losing a part of her.

Back in L.A., Rianne lived with three aunts, and though they seldom asked if she was okay, she knew they felt sorry for her. What happened a year ago, when they had that grand family reunion and she couldn’t join in on the conversation, was hard for them to forget. She remembered just sitting there with a blank expression on her face, and they fell silent for a moment and exchanged awkward glances until someone changed the topic into something more general. But they never asked her if she was doing okay or how she was holding up or if she was coping well. Those six months were not about her finding herself but running away from herself. It wasn’t about trying to remember but trying to forget that she had selective amnesia. She went here to get her life back, or at least part of it.

Three years ago, when she moved out from her parents’ house, she felt like she had everything under control, that she had put her life together perfectly.

But now, it seemed like she was thrown into a black hole and had to grapple her way out of it to complete the puzzle that is her life.

She picked up the pile of unread letters slipped through her door while she was gone. There were lots of get-well-soon cards, unpaid credit card bills and a bunch of letters from an unknown sender with a drawing of fireworks on the lower left corner of the envelope—these must have been sent here by mistake. She shoved the whole pile of mail inside a bag and resolved to deal with them the next afternoon.

But for tonight, there was the bienvenida that Alyssa organized in Rianne’s honor. She had to attend because everyone she knew would be there. This would be her only chance to get to know the people she had met within those two years and if she came across someone she couldn’t remember meeting, she would take the opportunity to ask them about those missing years, hoping they could shed some light on the darkness that had enveloped her.



As Rianne walked into the private room of the restaurant, she took a deep breath and shook off the nervousness about who she might meet there. She was excited at the same time but the dread of discovering what she could about her lost memories was killing her.

The first one to greet her with a kiss was Alyssa, who