Seconds ticked by as I waited for Castle to respond, to come up with an excuse and tell me I was wrong, but he didn't. Whatever he'd been saying to me was a lie. He didn't remember me; he didn't remember the Millie that he loved.

"I don't even know who you are anymore," I said, on the verge of tears, before walking out of the room.

I couldn't embarrass myself any further. He'd played me, and he'd done it well. He made me believe he knew me, and I'd been a fool to trust his words. I should have gone with my instincts, the instincts that told me the first time around that the old Castle was gone for good.

"Millicent, listen to me!" He was right behind me, hot on his heels.

I had stepped out when he grabbed me by my waist and pulled me back inside his study. He closed the door behind him, turned the lock, and blocked it with his enormous body so I couldn't go out.

"Look at me," he said.

I stared at the floor, so he held my chin and tilted my face upward to meet his gaze.

"Is this another one of your ploys? Am I just a pawn to you in this game, like the rest of your family? Because all you had to do was tell me the truth, Castle, and I would have supported you, anyway." I said, letting the tears fall freely. "I asked you if you remembered me and you lied to my face!"

"I had to do what I thought was right at the time! Please understand." His hands reached up to hold my shoulders, his whiskey-colored burning intensely. "I woke up confused in the hospital. I didn't lie about that. I remembered you, but just not the way you think I do. I recalled faces, names, flashes of certain incidents, but I was clueless."

He appeared to be worried. It looked like he wanted me to trust him again.

I refused to say anything. I hadn't gotten the answer I was looking for, and he realized it.

"Imagine this. I almost drowned, and then I wake up in my car sitting next to this beautiful woman who looked troubled and ready to flee. She held my hand throughout the car ride like she was trying to draw energy from me. I didn't know who you were, but I had visions of you. It was like looking at these pictures in my head."

"What visions?"

"Visions of you under the sun smiling at me, you trapped in the woods, crying for help." He continued, "I saw you as my bride. I saw you helping me regain my memories and protecting me from my brother. I saw you asking me to jump from the car. I was confused as hell because I didn't remember marrying you. I assumed it was part of Devin's plan, and I didn't know if I could trust you. Then I saw the ring on your finger."

"How did you know my name if you remembered nothing before the car ride?" I was playing twenty questions with him and I didn't care. I needed to see him pause or get stuck on his words, and I'd know he was lying.

He seemed genuine.

"I had a ring on my finger too. I checked the engraving inside. Your name is on it. I thought of testing it when I followed you into our room and called your name. You responded, and I knew you were my wife"

"So if you knew all this, then why did you lie to me? You could have just told me the truth from the very beginning."

"Because I knew it would break your heart. I could see it, clear as day that you expected me to remember you, and I don't know...I just didn't want to disappoint you, I guess."

I stepped away from him, folding my hands across my chest. "How do I know you're not lying to me right now?"

"You'll just have to take my word for it." He said.

I looked away from him. "I don't want you to play these games with me."

"I swear to you, Millicent, I'm not using you for any ulterior motive, believe me."

I could play one more card.

"I need more than that. I have to know fully that I can trust you. What happened to your mother? I read the second journal she wrote and in there it states that she left, but I don't believe what's written. How could she leave two of her kids to a woman she didn't trust? And if she did, why hasn't she gotten in touch with you yet?"

Castle's eyes cut through mine. His expressions were lethal. "You know about that journal?"

"Yes."

"I want to see it."

"It's in our bedroom."

Castle followed me to the bedroom and watched as I removed it from its hiding space. After reading it, I had forgotten to give it back to Theo, and he hadn't asked.

Castle took the journal from me and flipped the pages. "Do you have the first one?"

I shook my head. "Theo has it."

"Wait here," Castle told me as he disappeared from the room and then appeared a few minutes later with a file.

He put the file in front of me and opened the journal. "Look at it carefully." He pointed at it.

I looked at what was in front of me. "I don't understand."

"This journal is fake." He declared.

My heart pounded with that information. "What?"

"My mother did not write this one." To prove his theory, he pointed at the letter 'c' in the journal and the 'c' in the file where Aster had written some things. "Look, the letter 'C' is written differently in both."

Castle was right.

"Do you know what this means, Millicent?" He looked at me, pain etched in his features, "it means Chris and his wife wrote this journal to make it look like my mom packed and left. They even got it written by some professional copycat who wrote this in an identical hand. My mom would never leave us. She was murdered."

"Oh god!" I slumped onto the bed.

"Do you also want to know how I found her?"

The question was, though, did I want to put Castle through the trauma again? Could I stomach the gruesome details of the murder? From the looks of it, whatever that had happened wasn't pretty, and I didn't think I had the guts to learn.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know what they had done. I suspected it but...how could someone be so vicious?!"

"My family." He answered, "Listen, about the divorce. The offer still stands."

"You think I want a divorce?"

"I will take them down, with or without you." His voice became a murmur, "It's going to get dirty and I wouldn't hold anything against you if you want out."

"I want to see this end. I'm not leaving."

* ~ *

Castle was busy in the next few days. I would hardly see him because he would go to the company in the morning and when he returned, he would be in his study and I didn't go there because I didn't want to disturb him.

I was curled up on the single leather couch under the blanket with a book in my hand. I was reading it but my mind kept going to Castle. I would always fall asleep before he made it home. Today, I was adamant about not sleeping. I was going to wait for my husband.

There was a knock on the door. Why was he knocking?

I placed the book aside. "Come in."

I was giddy at the thought of seeing him.

Until Dayana walked in.

She looked shaken. "Millie."

She never so much as paid attention to me, and she'd always gotten sadistic pleasure from seeing me get hurt, so I was not buying into her cry-baby demeanor.

I placed the book aside. "What do you want?"

She shut the door behind her and closed the distance between us. "Millie, I know you hate me and you have good reason to but please, you have to listen to me."

I remained silent.

"You need to speak to Castle; he can put an end to this. Tell him to talk it out with Devin. We are no longer enemies. We can co-exist in this house. I will make Devin understand."

My anger was ricocheting through these walls. This evil incarnate was acting like a victim.

"Dayana, I don't know what weed you've been smoking to think I'm going to be moved by your tears, but it's not working. Devin almost got us killed, remember? We survived an attempted murder. Castle and I were lying on the ground with no one to help us for miles. You put us in that situation knowing we wouldn't make it out alive, and you want me to forgive you?"

"I know what we did, and it's understandable, Millie. I'm so, so sorry for everything."

Hadn't I wanted this before?

Yes, I had imagined Dayana begging for forgiveness multiple times, but never knew it would actually happen.

"We did it because Castle killed our parents in front of us. Do you know how traumatic that was? He took everything..." She reached out to take my hands. "Please Millie, talk to him, or they might end up killing each other."

I snatched my hand away. "It's none of my business. Now, please leave me alone."

I had never seen Dayana so heartbroken, and part of me knew she was planning something. Devin was probably on this too, but I was smarter than to trust either of the siblings. They wanted Castle to have his guard down so they could strike again.

*~*

Sometime after midnight, the bedroom door opened, and Castle walked inside.

"Hey." I smiled at him sleepily.

"Hey, darling." He greeted, kissing my forehead. "I thought you would be asleep."

"I was waiting for you."

He was shirtless as he collapsed on the bed and beckoned for me to come to him. I giggled and joined him in bed. He kissed me slowly, sensuously, his tongue working the magic as usual. With his other hand, he pulled out a wrapped box and handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Look for yourself."

I tore the wrapper and inside there was a beautiful maroon satin gown. "It's lovely."

"I want you to wear this right now."

I laughed, "Right now?"

"Yeah."

I disrobed and pulled on the one he'd bought for me. "Thank you, baby."

"I realized I've been a major asshole and haven't given you much time..."

He was saying something more, but my eyes were drowsy, and he probably noticed that because he chuckled, "Get some sleep." He placed open-mouthed kisses over my cheek and neck. My fingers dug into his hair. "We're taking it slow, so today we spoon."

"Hmmm..." I mumbled. As much as I wanted Castle to keep doing what he was doing, I was also dead tired from having a lack of sleep.

I don't know when I fell asleep in Castle's arms. I buried my face in his chest, and inhaled his ocean body-wash scent, grazing the light trail of hair on his stomach, and tracing his chiseled abs. I was drugged with this feeling. He was mine and I would happily die for this man.

The old grandfather clock downstairs chimed.

And then I heard the sound of a gun cocking.

I looked up in time to see a barrel of a handgun poised towards us in the darkness.

In the silver moonlight streaming from the window, I noticed the triumph look on Devin's handsome face.

"It ends here." He said in a deadly whisper.

* * *

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