“I can’t do this,” Grant muttered, his knuckles white as he gripped the parallel bars, attempting to pull himself up. “Yes, you can,” Anna said firmly, standing right beside him. “You have already come this far, Grant. Don’t you dare stop now.”
He turned his head to look at her, his breathing heavy and strained. She wasn’t just saying empty words to motivate him. He could see it in her eyes: she truly, genuinely believed in him. And that, in turn, made him believe in himself. With a determined exhale, he pushed himself up and took another agonizing step forward.
Anna’s whole face lit up. “That’s it! You’re doing it!” For the first time since waking up, Grant managed a real smile.
It wasn’t a smile out of politeness. It wasn’t for obligation. It was because, for the first time in over a year, he actually felt alive again. And he knew exactly who he had to thank for that.
Anna was nothing like the others. She never treated him like some charity case or a fragile patient. She didn’t see him as the “billionaire trapped in a hospital bed.” She just saw… him. Just Grant.
And that was precisely why he found himself gravitating toward her more and more. Whenever she was in the room, the world just felt lighter. Whenever she spoke, her voice seemed to pull him out of the persistent darkness that still lingered at the edges of his mind.
And whenever she touched him—a hand on his arm to steady him as he walked, a simple adjustment of his pillow—his skin tingled with a warmth he couldn’t quite explain.
One evening, after a particularly long and grueling therapy session, Anna suggested they take a walk in the hospital’s private garden. “Some fresh air might do you some good,” she said with a small smile. Grant readily agreed.
But what he didn’t expect was how completely different everything would feel once he was outside those four hospital walls. The cool night air on his face. The sound of rustling trees. The moon casting a soft, silvery glow over the world. For the first time, he felt like a person again.
Not a patient. Not a medical mystery with missing memories. Just… himself.
And beside him was Anna. They walked slowly, Anna holding onto his arm to support him. At first, Grant assumed it was just part of her job, part of her nursing duties.
But then he noticed other things. The way her fingers seemed to linger on his wrist just a second longer than necessary. The way she would glance at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. The way her breath would hitch, just slightly, whenever he stepped a little too close.
And suddenly, he knew. She felt it, too. That same pull. That unspoken, undeniable connection that hummed between them.
They stopped near a small stone bench, the moonlight casting long shadows across the garden path. Grant turned to face her, his heartbeat suddenly unsteady for a completely different reason this time.
Anna opened her mouth to say something, probably about the time. But before she could, Grant reached out and took her hand. Her lips parted in surprise, her eyes searching his.
“I don’t remember anything about my life before this hospital,” he admitted, his voice low and serious. “But I do know one thing for sure.” Anna swallowed, her gaze locked on his…
