My sight tunneled in onto their hands and I tried to monitor my heartbeat because I know the slightest irregular rhythm will give me off.

When I raised my eyes, I met Kiara's twinkling ones. She was plastering a smile on her face and I think it was supposed to be a kind one but knowing how much of a snake she was, I saw through to the malice she was masking behind that smile. She was happy seeing me like this.

I heard the heartbeat monitor speed up as I breathed out hard. I brought the kids that were sitting by my sides closer to me as I glared at Adam in betrayal. How dare he bring that bitch into this room.

Adam seemed unfazed by my glares and continued to lead Kiara and himself closer to my hospital bed. I hugged the kids tighter to my side and I saw Maddison holding Preston's arm.

I narrowed my eyes at Adam when he didn't stop walking towards me and when I felt like he's reached the borders of my personal space, which was 5 meters from the hospital bed, I snapped at him to stop.

"Keep your bitch away from me or I will not be accounted for what I will do to her if she's within my arms reach." I growled at Adam and Preston was between us in a flash although his face was red and his hands were in fists, clearly as upset as I was with his little brother.

I heard Adam snort, "You're on a hospital bed, Case, what do you think can you do?" Adam mocked. I scoffed at him, the nerve of this asshole.

"Case, I don't like her," Cali whispered to me but it wasn't low enough that Kiara didn't hear it and I could see Kiara's narrowed eyes at Cali and I immediately snapped.

"Bitch, keep your shit eyes elsewhere. If you dare glare at her again, I will cut you in pieces and feed you to my grandparents' piranhas." Kiara immediately casted me an ugly look and rolled her eyes.

"Bite me," Kiara bit out quietly.

"Trust me, I'll sharpen my canines just to have the satisfaction of using them to tear you piece by piece." I gritted out, making sure to press the kids head onto my shoulders with my hands covering their ears so they wouldn't have to hear what we're saying.

"That is enough, Case!" Adam scolded with annoyance. "I won't let some jealous girl step on my girlfriend like that."

"Jealous?" I hissed menacingly. Oh he did not.

"Yes, jealous!" Adam exclaimed in exasperation.

"Why the hell would I be jealous?! She's dating a nincompoop!" I yelled at him, ignoring the frantic beeping of the heart monitor as I breathed heavily. "How are you so blind, Adam? Everyone else can see the witch that she is except for you. How could you trust her over your own flesh and blood?" I questioned in bewilderment.

"Because I know for a fact that they only think so since you told them so. They're blinded by you," Adam accused. I could see now that Preston's shoulders were shaking now but it was Jerry that spoke only behalf.

"Just go Adam, bring Kiara somewhere else. We're here for Casey, if you're only going to try rile her up then it's best that you leave." Jerry sighed out in defeat but I could see that Adam was having none of it.

"How are you defending her over your own son?! How could you be so blind?!" Adam yelled at his father. I could feel my face turning red at how much disrespect he was showing Jerry but it was Preston who stepped in.

"Casey is in this hospital room because of you, you asshole! The least you could do is trust her! She risked her life to keep all of us safe! Your distrust shook her focus and almost cost her life. Why don't you think about that next time you want to accuse her for being a liar?"

Adam glared at all of us, "If I remembered correctly, I tried to stop her from fighting but she was stubborn and made her decision." Jerry looked at his son in disbelief and Preston shook his head at his brother while I felt the stab wound in my heart stretch wider.

"Leave, Adam." Preston gritted out. All the while, I locked eyes with Kiara and I saw the amusement and smugness beneath her mask.

Before Adam can exit the room after Kiara stepped outside, Preston spoke again,halting his movements.

"I hope one day you realize how imbecilic you've been and when you do, you better have an award-winning apology in your pockets to give to Casey or I will personally kick your ass."

With that last exchange, Adam left the room without another glance back and I released the kids after trying to block the noises from reaching their small ears.

They both gave me hugs and I smoothed their hair and rubbed their backs, trying to comfort them.

"She won't ever hurt you guys. She won't even touch you, I'll never let her." I murmured into Cali's hair as I gave them both small kisses on top of their heads.

A few hours later, the hospital let me go home and I went home with the Jones to their house. I have school tomorrow and it'll be hard to explain why I looked like I had just been hit by a bus but I can't afford to miss another day of school. The good news is my first class doesn't start until the afternoon so that gives me time to sleepover at the Jones'.

I doubt that Adam will be coming home tonight after what happened in the hospital and I was relieved. No matter how much of an asshole he was being, he still wore the face of the man I once loved. I can't disregard that even though I knew it wasn't my Adam anymore. It still hurts.

I laid awake that night, feeling my exhaustion catching up with me but not entirely ready to slip into a deep sleep. I looked at the ceiling of the room, wondering if there will come a time where Adam will remember me properly again. I feel frustrated at myself for hitting him that one time when he was already starting to remember. Maybe if I didn't hit his head so hard the second time, he'll remember by now and maybe I'll have him back.

I groaned in frustration, this wasn't helping at all. It was like I was feeding myself so much hope and when things doesn't turn out the way I want them to, I get slammed back down into reality. I gotta get my head out of the clouds and face the current reality as it is right now. Adam doesn't love me anymore. He loves Kiara. The witch.

I stretched my arm out, feeling the scream of my sore muscles and wrapped my fingers around the pillow above my head. I pulled the pillow down to my face and used it to muffle my screams which turns into sobs.

God, look at me. Pathetically crying over some guy. Bryant would be ashamed; right after he beat Adam up for breaking my heart. This isn't the Casey he left. I've let Bryant go, I think along the way of meeting Adam, I've accepted the fact that he was in a better place and I think he's happy being up there because I think Adam was right when he said Bryant probably couldn't think of a more honorable way of leaving than to save his little sister that he loved so much.

Along the way, I figured out that I can live with myself as long as that was how I see things. As long as I believe that Adam was happy in Heaven. I've lived years of my life seeing Bryant's death as such a sorrowful thing. Seeing my parents' devastated state after his death, facing Maddison's spiteful words and seeing all the ugly looks people gave me when they found out what happened and why the crash happened. Adam made me realize that all along I should be looking at Bryant's death as his soul moving on to a better place, a much less corruptive place. I couldn't have reached this state of peace of mind without Adam and I owed him greatly for that.

I have half a mind to blame all this tears on hormones but I can't deny that deep inside I was upset about what Adam has been doing. Maybe it wouldn't have been this bad if it wasn't Kiara he was with right now but her being the other girl, if you can even call her that since I wasn't even with Adam in all technicalities, made everything seem 10x worse.

I was jealous even though I didn't want to admit or show it. I have this delirious side of me that believed that one day Adam would come back whole to me again. That he'll leave the wench and regain his memories of us and come back to me.

It took me all this time to finally realize that it wasn't healthy. The old me wouldn't even count on the thought but I guess Adam changed a lot when he walked into my life.

I need to let go of the hope that he's going to regain his memories and come back to me because each passing day that he doesn't feels like a lash inside me. I was tattered and in pieces and I don't think I could withstand another week of hoping.

A soft knock came from the door and I shifted my head to look at the door at my right, trying not to move anything else since everything else is sore. The door opened as a small crack of light from the hallway broke its way through the darkness. When I saw who it was, I shifted my head back to its original and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"How are you feeling?" Adam asked and I wanted to shrug but decided against it.

"I thought you weren't going to go home tonight." I stated instead and I saw him shrug in the corner of my vision.

"I didn't think so too but.." he trailed off and I felt the bed dip slightly by the side of my foot and I glanced at him. I could tell he was keeping his distance and I was grateful for that. Here I was, thinking about letting go of the hope I was feeling and then he swept in and suddenly here I was hoping again; how pathetic.

I guess I didn't answer for too long because he continued on, trying to explain his presence.

"I don't know why I came here. I started remembering fragments of my past, including you, and a few days ago, I started remembering less and less and I just don't want the flashbacks to stop. I don't want to forget about anything." Adam sounded frustrated and I felt my coldness towards him melt.

"Please just help me remember," I could hear the desperation in his voice and I tried to hoist myself into a sitting position to look at him properly. I propped myself up against the pillows and looked at Adam in the eye.

"What do you want to know?" I asked. I want him to remember, might as well help with the process.

"I keep having this flashback where we were laying down on this ground covered mat. We were just talking and the skies were covered with millions of stars that night. I remembered the small campfire burning beside us. We were eating marshmallows. I couldn't remember why we were there though. We were clearly in a forest but I didn't remember building any tent."

I could only remember one camping trip that I have with Adam.

"We came up to the mountains to have a camping trip. We did build two tents. You brought me up there to ask me out," I stated. We fell to an awkward silence after he processed the last words I said. 

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that last part.

But a part of me did want him to remember.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked him hesitantly after a few minutes of debating over whether I should speak up. Adam looked at me briefly before nodding, rubbing his eyes with his thumb.

"Why don't you trust me about Kiara? What has ever given you the impression that I was the type of girl to lie out of jealousy and possessiveness?" I asked, not bothering to mask any of my emotions. I was too tired with the bullshit of covering up what I was feeling.

After a few moments of silence, Adam shook his head, stood up and left. That was all it took for the strings in me to snap.

He simply didn't care enough to think about those questions. I thought brokenly.

With that thought, I felt one last tug in my heart as I willed myself to let go of the hope that Adam was ever going to come back to me and fell into a deep sleep.