"Close your eyes, I have something for you," Tallulah said to AJ. They were seated on a rock with a waterfall behind them. The white water cascaded down a series of rocky outcrops, giving the effect of many waterfalls rather than just one. Then it flowed on its way, nonchalant as if nothing had occurred.

A force of nature, both beautiful and brutal. Tranquil from a distance but deafening up close. It was as if the cascades of water conjured cascades of equally powerful emotions in his brain and it quite took his breath away. It was simply spectacular, the most magnificent sight he had ever beheld.

Three weeks after the underground fight and Anthony taking the heavyweight title, they left for the cabin they'd been to before.Then the weather had been almost cool. Now in midsummer, it was blazing hot, and they were sweating on a daily basis if they weren't in the water. He had spent days tucked in the crook of Tallulah's neck. His muscles were so sore from the intense fight that the only place that gave him comfort was laying between Tallulah's naked legs. So the most logical thing to do was to take a break and disappear with the woman he wanted for a few weeks.

"What?" he asked, looking at her suspiciously with a smile.

She smiled. "Like I said, it's a surprise. Close your eyes."

AJ wasn't sure if he'd say Tallulah was classically beautiful, but her large liquid brown eyes held such an intelligence and serenity that it was impossible for him not to be held prisoner by them.

He did as she requested.

The sound of water splashing is what AJ heard next. "You can open them now," she screamed from a distance.

He opened his eyes to see her white shirt on the rock they had been seated on and her small naked body in the water. She smiled at him. A dark masculine eyebrow hiked up as he looked over at her. This girl couldn't even look into his eyes a few months ago and now she was bold enough to tempt him like this?

She cocked her head to the side. "You want to join me, Mr. Joshua?"

She didn't have to ask him twice. AJ shrugged out of his trunks and dived into the water, swimming to where she was.

"Of course Mrs. Joshua," he murmured against her lips, his slick hands sliding up her sides, caressing her back. She trembled as they traced and drew circles, then dipped and slipped down over her backside and all the way down her legs.

Tallulah nibbled on his sweaty neck, and trailed down his neck. "Music to my ears," she said and took his mouth into hers.

His phone rang insistently on the rock. "Ignore it."

"It might be important." Groaning, he tore his lips from her and swarm over to the rock to answer it without looking at the caller id. "What?"

"Is this Anthony Joshua?" A male voice asked.

"Yes," he replied grimly. "Who is this?"

"This is doctor West from the St Mary's hospital. We need you to come to the hospital right way Mr. Joshua."

His heartbeat against his chest. "What is wrong? Is it my son?"

Joe had stayed back with his grandparents because he was still in school. The last time they spoke was when he'd called the night before and Joe had been fine. He was having a blast with his grandparents and had even asked to stay with them forever.

"We are not at liberty to discuss this with you over the phone. If you could please come to the hospital as soon as you can," doctor west said and hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Tallulah was by his side, searching his eyes.

"Someone called Doctor West just called to tell me to head over to St. Mary's hospital right away."

She panicked. He could see the way her pupils dilated in fear. "Is Joe okay? Is it Joe? Oh my goodness..." She struggled to go out of the water. "We need to go."

Convulsively, AJ's fingers tightened around her wrists. "I don't know if it's about Joe. Calm down, we just need to get back to the house and call my mother to confirm that he is okay. They would have called me if he wasn't."

She could no more ignore the feel of cold dread than she could ignore the defiant, fear that was on AJ's face. The thought of something happening to Joe just froze her heart in the chest. It chilled her to the bone.

Surely not! It couldn't have been! Her whole being rebelled at the thought. He was a good kid, if anything happened it could kill her.

"Tallulah!" AJ shook her shoulders vigorously. They were already back in the cabin and she didn't even notice it. He dragged a dress shirt over her body and shoved a phone into her hands. "Call them over and over again, until they pick up. It's not going through."

Dear God. This wasn't happening. It took her back to the time when she got the news that the plane her parents were in crashed and that no one had survived. Tears clouded her vision.

AJ grabbed her hand. "Let's go."

"Yeah, okay!" She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her shirt and quickened her steps, following him behind.

They were cruising down the highway in no time. Her legs tapped on the floor as she dialed AJ's parent's numbers but no one picked up. She couldn't breath. This was her worst nightmare. She couldn't even begin to imagine what was going on in AJ's mind.

**

Doctor West's office was modern, too modern for Tallulah's liking. The office was painted grey, and it had only one floor-to-ceiling window, which faced the main road. On the grey desk sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner, the air conditioner was blasting at medium, and there was a swivel chair in the middle of the office. There was only one picture on the wall, a picture of a fat cat that Tallulah didn't like one bit.

She squeezed AJ's hand. Waiting for about five minutes without a word from anyone was killing her.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting." The doctor had the posture of a soldier. Every action he took was precise and purposeful. He smiled in the cold and distant way professionals do. Tallulah was pleased to see the silver hair on the doctor. He had a face like some guy you'd ask for directions in the street, non-threatening she supposed. In a suit he could be a news anchor, clean cut but with that loveable smile that was only ever removed from his features when he needed to be serious. His movements were unhurried, choreographed and deliberate.

"My name is doctor West," he addressed AJ. "You must be Anthony. I am doctor Maverick West."

Anthony shook his hand. "This is Tallulah. Doctor is this about my son?"

He shook his head. "No! This is about your wife."

AJ glanced upward, his mouth pursed but slightly open and loose. His eyes were fixed on the doctor. "What? Was he body found?"

"No!" Doctor West answered. "She's not dead."

He stared as if the doctor had just produced a rhinoceros from his pocket. Tallulah could just imagine the sparks in his brain, desperately trying to connect the dots and instead just causing a short circuit. He looked like a pop-eyed toy from one of those claw machines at the fun fair. "I'm confused what do you mean?"

"As you remember, your wife had that accident that reeled her car into the Windermere lake and her body was never found. It turns out that she was rescued by an old man in the town of Bowness-on-Windermere."

AJ shook his head in disbelief. "What?"

"She was in a coma for three years." The doctor went on. "When she woke up from the coma, she was diagnosed with amnesia because of the impact of the accident. She remembered nothing about herself until a few days ago after she hit her head in an accident."

"I've been her doctor for four years now. I worked in the forestland general hospital, in a little village where I met Aubrey, until a few months back where I was transferred to St. Mary's. Aubrey has been coming to Manchester for her regular check up and was involved in a little scuffle on the streets where a biker caused her to ram her head into a poll as he avoided hitting her with his bike. Luckily, other than a cut on her head, the only thing she was able to get was her memory back."

The news was quite unbelievable, shocking really. Tallulah's mind was sent reeling, unable to comprehend or process the words being sent by her ears. She looked away, then looked back to see if it was really happening, that they were really in a hospital. They were.

"I'm so confused," AJ said, rubbing his hands on his head. "They said she was dead."

"I know that this is a lot to take in but your wife would explain this to you better than I can. She was the one who asked me to call you. If you are ready, would you like to see her?"

His face had an unhealthy look to it and his eyes were hard open as he stared at nothing on the wall.

"Anthony?"

He snapped out of it. "Yeah. I want to see her."

The doctor was on his feet, leading them out of the door. AJ grabbed onto Tallulah's hands and held on for dear life. It was as if she grounded him, made it seem more real than a bad dream.

The fingers of her free hand were jumping rhythmically, as if in spasm...And then her legs gently folded and buckled slowly with each step, ungainly as a marionette...Her bowels suddenly churned. Oh God, she prayed, don't let that happen, not now...she continued moving, fighting the terrible loosening of her bowels, the need to vomit.

Doctor West came to a halt down an empty hallway. "Walk straight ahead to room 306," he patted AJ's shoulders. "Take it easy. This is as surprising to her as it is to you."

He was off and AJ walked on, his hands still clinging onto Tallulah's. With each step came an even greater need to vomit. Tallulah pulled her hand away before they could reach the door they were heading to.

AJ looked at her with confusion when she stopped walking. His gaze met hers and she shook her head. He moved closer, covering the distance that separated them and towered over her. Tallulah swallowed. Her heart hammered a thousand miles a minute. She took a deep steadying breath, and managed a determinedly sultry smile of her own, then lifted her hands and splayed them on his chest. "I can't go in with you."

She stood still, leaning on the wall with no strength to move. Her shaky fingers finally came to stop after running restlessly through her messed up hair. She bit down on my lip trying not to burst into tears. "Go."

His eyes had frozen over like the surface of a winter puddle, robbing them of their usual warmth. He was in there, she knew it, but it was like he just took a huge step back from life.

"Just stand here with me for one minute," he croaked out.

Tallulah looked away, eyes everywhere but on Anthony. Then he moved closer with those eyes that looked so deeply into her own, "Please."

There was something about that gaze of his she would never find in another man, as if in that moment their souls had made a bridge. His gaze fell like an act of violence, a glare to stop her heart. For in that moment she knew that the man she loved was never going to be hers again.

Turning on his heel, AJ walked into his wife's room.

Tallulah rushed down the hallway in search of a bathroom. The vomit came up looking like clam chowder and smelling like acidic Cheetos. Tallulah sank to her bottom, resisting touching her face with her fouled hands, heaving. As she leaned forward the last of it dribbled from her lips and her stomach turned over one more time.

***

"AJ?" Aubrey's faint voice called as he walked into the room. She sat up on the small hospital bed and their gaze locked. Her eyes were a soft washed out green, like a favorite sweater that's been washed too many times. In the last six months, the memories of those eyes that he loved had stopped tormenting his mind. They had been replaced by big, warm brown ones.

Her face was very white, the color of a moonbeam, or an ivory carving. A snowy face, very beautiful, like a snow queen's in a fairy tale. Her hands, too, were bone-white, but soft and elegant, as pale hands often are. She looked like a porcelain doll--you worried that she'd shatter if she fell.

"Au...brey?" his voice cracked.

"Anthony...Oh God. Where is my son?" she asked.

AJ faced the wall, his face creased and his fists closed so tight he could feel the sweat trapped inside them. That's when he heard a sound that almost stopped his heart. She sobbed into her hands and the tears dripped between her fingers, raining down onto her covering.

He sat on the bed and pulled her for a tight hug.

"How could I forget my own child for two years?" she asked.

AJ didn't know what to say, all this had yet to sink in. His wife was not dead and he didn't know whether to rejoice about it or feel sick. It was like someone had knocked him to his knees and he couldn't find the strength to get up.

"How is this even possible?" He asked. "We thought you were dead."

"I woke up with no memory of anything in a small hospital with this old man next to my bed." she said. "Apparently, he rescued me from some lake. No one knew who I was. They tried to get my information, waited for someone to come looking for me but no one came. When I woke up, I tried to do everything in my power to get my memory back but it was harder than I thought. Then I gave up one day and decided to start afresh."

"How were you unable to get your information?" AJ asked. "Your case was big in Manchester, it was open for a year before the police decided to close the case due to lack of leads."

"Exactly," she answered. "They closed the case and my story ceased to exist. After I was pronounced dead, it was as if I disappeared from the face of the earth."

AJ felt a lump form in his throat. "I looked for you everywhere. They convinced me that you were dead. I believed them."

The guilt that he felt ate into him.

Tears spilled down her face. They both didn't know what to say in that situation. So many things had happened between them in the years that they had been apart that it felt awkward. Each of them were filled with guilt over something they both had no control over.