Chapter Twenty: Flashback Memories

What happened in the library had nothing to do with Vince’s real reason for following her earlier. In fact, he had been trying to be a good Samaritan, rushing to her aid when he saw her faint in front of him.

Cara, however, wasn’t as convinced of his good intentions. “The stalker. Are you the one who was stalking me at the library?” she asked bluntly, her words catching him off guard. He had no idea what she was talking about, and suddenly, the entire point of the conversation shifted. He hadn’t meant to give her the impression that he had been following her all along, and he immediately regretted the slip of the tongue.

“Right, let’s clear this up,” Vince began, trying to remain calm. “First of all, I wasn’t stalking you, either in the library or in the corridor. Second, why do you always assume someone is stalking you? You seem paranoid sometimes. And lastly, what exactly happened to you in the library? Were you threatened? I found you looking frightened, and the next thing I knew, you fainted.”

Cara paused, the serious tone in his voice making her reconsider her earlier accusations. He wasn’t the one she should be blaming. It wasn’t him who had made her feel as if someone was following her. In fact, she knew it was more about her own anxiety than anything else.

“Maybe because you happened to be there twice, and I thought someone was following me. It just made me feel... uneasy,” she tried to explain, looking a little embarrassed now. “I’ve been trusting my instincts lately, but it’s got me wrong a couple of times, and I’m sorry if I made you feel like I was accusing you. It wasn’t my intention.”

She avoided his eyes, her gaze drifting for a moment before landing back on his face. Vince was handsome, and the way his eyes looked at her made her feel as though he could see right through her. For a brief moment, she couldn’t help but imagine that the face she’d seen in her dream could be his—though she quickly shook that thought away. It was ridiculous.

“Just forget what happened,” she added, trying to brush it all off. “I had my reasons, personal ones.”

Vince nodded, sensing that there was more to her words than she was letting on, but he didn’t push.

..................................................................

Will's POV

“Give me all the chocolates and candies, Aurora. I want to give some to my playmate, Cara,” Will demanded with his usual bossy tone, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Aurora, his nanny, raised an eyebrow as she playfully teased him, “How about Vince?”

Will grimaced at the mention of his cousin. Vince was someone he could never stand, especially when it seemed like his nanny treated him like a sibling. The idea made his stomach churn.

“Don’t give him anything. His teeth will fall out. Mom bought these for me, not for him,” he snapped, his bratty attitude evident as he crossed his arms, refusing to share.

With the chocolates and cookies in hand, Will couldn’t wait to see Cara. He practically skipped out of the house, eager to visit her. He remembered her mom saying she was waiting to play with him, and the thought of spending time with his childhood friend filled him with excitement.

“Cara, I have something for you!” Will announced as he walked straight to her room.

“I know what it is,” she replied with a knowing smile, clearly familiar with Will’s gifts by now.

Will stood there for a moment, watching as Cara approached him. But what happened next completely caught him off guard. She walked up to him, kissed him on the cheek, and thanked him. Her gesture stunned him, leaving him speechless for a moment. He hadn’t expected this sudden affection, and the warmth of her kiss lingered longer than he would admit.

Her smile, so pure and sweet, filled him with a strange energy. It made him feel something—something different from the usual feeling of superiority he often wore. But despite that warmth, his snobby side couldn’t help but dismiss her muddy playmates outside. He wasn’t the type to join in on their rowdy games.

The memory of that day, when Cara was so sweet to him, stayed with him long after it had passed. They had been best friends back then—inseparable. But everything began to change the moment his cousin, Vince, entered the picture. That was the start of Cara pulling away from him, and Will couldn’t understand why. It stung him to watch it happen.

His family eventually moved away, and Will thought he might never see Cara again. But when his parents decided to return to their old neighborhood, he immediately planned to find her. He had seen her around at school, but he hadn’t worked up the courage to approach her yet. He wasn’t afraid of her; it was more that he wanted to find the perfect way to reconnect with her.

But then, there was the other guy. That annoying presence that kept getting in his way—Vince. Will couldn’t stand seeing him around Cara, and every time he did, the irritation gnawed at him. The jealousy burned in his chest. The thought that someone else might take his place—his childhood place—was more than he could bear.

Determined to find out who Cara was meeting, Will followed her into the cafeteria one day. He spotted her immediately, her face looking so small and frustrated as she watched the guy surrounded by a group of cheerleaders. That sight hit him harder than he expected. She looked so lost, so… pathetic, as if she couldn’t belong in the world Vince was so easily a part of. Will had wanted to be the one to comfort her, to remind her of who she really was. But when he saw her standing there, caught in the web of her jealousy, it was clear that he was too late. His rival had already won.

But Will wasn’t the kind to give up easily. That wasn’t in his nature. If anyone was going to win Cara’s heart, it was going to be him. He’d always been there, and he would always make sure it stayed that way.

Later that evening, after she’d given him her phone number, Will called Cara. They spoke briefly, but it was clear she wasn’t as enthusiastic as he had hoped. She sounded distant, disinterested, and it bothered him more than he cared to admit. Still, Will wasn’t one to back down just because things weren’t going his way. He pressed on, bringing up memories from their childhood, hoping to stir something within her, hoping it would bring them back to the connection they once had.

“Are you telling me, you were the one giving me chocolates when we were little? Are you sure?” Cara’s voice suddenly became more engaged, the curiosity in her tone making Will’s heart race.

A small smile tugged at his lips as he remembered the past so vividly. “Yeah, I was the one. You thanked me with a kiss. It was the best feeling, seeing you smile like that.”

He paused, hoping for the confirmation he needed. “Do you remember it?”

Cara’s answer wasn’t what he’d hoped for. “I told you, I don’t remember anything about my childhood. But I did have a dream about it. And Jean mentioned it too.”

The words hit Will harder than he expected. Cara didn’t remember, but the fact that she had a dream about it... It was something, at least. But it left him feeling unsettled, like there was something he was missing, some piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit.

..............................................................................................

“Cara, I brought you a bag of chocolates and cookies. All of my share is for you.”

She suddenly stood up, as if jolted awake by a thought that surfaced from her subconscious. Despite only taking a quick nap, her mind was still entangled in dreams.

In her dream, she saw a younger version of Will. But something felt off—an instinct whispered that this boy wasn’t quite the Will she knew as a child.

Confused, she instinctively grabbed her phone. Maybe a childhood picture of Will would help her clarify her swirling thoughts.

She called him without hesitation, asking him to send her a picture of him from his past, hoping it would unravel the mystery.

Moments later, as she stared at the photo, a sudden realization hit her like a rush of cold water. “Finally, I found him!” she whispered to herself, the fog in her mind beginning to clear. The boy from her dream was definitely Will. But when she remembered the grown man in her dreams, it wasn’t Will anymore.

Her face shifted from a light relief to frustration. It was like a puzzle with pieces that wouldn’t fit. The boy’s version was unmistakably Will, but the man—the older version of him—was different.

Was it Vince? The man’s face in her dream had blurred details, but something about it felt too familiar, too close to Vince. Yet, she couldn’t be sure. She still hadn’t found the sketch Jean had mentioned. And that last dream she had, the one with the mysterious man… his face was still a haze.

As Cara tried to process everything, a voice broke through her thoughts, startling her.

“Is the library your nest?” the voice asked, and she froze.

The voice. It was him—the man she had been contemplating moments before. The one whose face she had seen in her dream. His presence was so sudden that her pulse raced, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. The connection between her dream and this man standing before her was undeniable.

Her mind, still foggy and confused, struggled to piece it all together. She had been thinking about him just seconds ago. He had appeared in her dreams, and now here he was, standing in front of her in the flesh.

She could feel the heat rising in her face. She quickly tried to regain her composure, though her mind was anything but clear.

“I’m not sleeping,” she stammered, trying to brush off the strange feeling. “I just took a nap. Needed to restart my brain from everything I’ve been doing lately.”

But even as she spoke, she couldn’t fully explain the chaos inside her. The dreams, the face, the strange feeling of familiarity—it was all too much. The man in front of her had been in her dreams, yet he was so much more than that now. And as much as she wanted to make sense of it all, her words failed her, her mind swirling in confusion.