small wooden turtle, knuckles paling to bone white as anger simmered just beneath his skin-hot, sharp, and mixed with a confusion that made his chest ache. "I will ask again... ho

e. The intensity in her eyes made him shift slightly, uncomfortable in a way he couldn't explain. "So... the wooden carving belongs to you?" she asked, her voice low and steady despite the tears still slipping down her cheeks. Each word was carefully measured, each syllable carrying a weight that pressed down on them both. "It's mine," Teddy replied after a brief pause, though he couldn't meet her eyes, his gaze dropping to the carving in his hand. "When I was sixteen, Caramel saved me from drowning in the lake at a picnic outing.I gave it to her as a thank you-said it was to remind her that I'd always find my way back to her." A hollow laugh escaped Mira's lips, shaking and disbelieving, echoing in the quiet room. She took a step back, her hands coming up to press against her chest as if to hold herself together. "Impossible." She shook her head slowly, her hair falling across her face, hiding the heartbreak in her eyes. "Impossible," she repeated, her voice cracking as emotion overwhelmed her. "The pond was in Riverside Park-small, hidden, nothing like a cabin lake. The boy I saved was wearing a faded blue hoodie and ripped jeans, not expensive swim trunks. He had a small scar above his left eyebrow from where he'd hit his head on the rock." She looked up at him then, her eyes locking with his, and for the first time, he saw it-the small scar above his left eyebrow, barely visible beneath his dark hair but unmistakable. His hand moved instinctively to touch it, his fingers brushing against the familiar raised skin. She looked around the room-at the expensive furniture, the pristine floors, the woman standing beside him who had claimed to be his savior. The words turned into a scream, raw and shattered as she shoved Teddy hard in the chest with both hands. He staggered back slightly, caught off guard-not by the force of the push, but by the sheer pain behind it, the years of loneliness and heartbreak pouring out of her in that single movement. "It is fake... it is all fake!" she cried out, her voice echoing off the walls. She gestured wildly at the carving in his hand. "Everything is a lie!" Before anyone could stop her, before Teddy could find the words to speak, Mira turned and ran. Her feet pounded against the polished floors, her hand fumbling with the front door before she wrenched it open and fled into the hallway. The door slammed behind her with a thunderous crash that shook the walls, leaving silence in its wake. Heavy. Suffocating. Caramel stood frozen, her fingers trembling slightly at her sides. The confidence she had worn so easily moments ago had vanished completely, replaced by something far less controlled. Fear. It flickered in her blue eyes, raw and unfiltered, as she stared at the closed door where Mira had disappeared. She reached for Teddy's arm, her hand trembling, but he stepped back before she could touch him. Teddy didn't move at first. He stood perfectly still, the wooden turtle clutched in his hand, his mind racing as he tried to process everything he'd just heard. The pieces had been there all along-small moments he'd dismissed as coincidence, feelings of familiarity he couldn't explain, the way Mira's presence had always made him feel calm in a way no one else could. Then slowly-very slowly-it hit him. Every detail. The way Mira spoke, the cadence of her voice that had always sounded familiar even when he couldn't place why. The certainty in her words as she described that day, every small detail matching his own fragmented memories of being pulled from the water. The carving in his hand, worn smooth in exactly the places he remembered holding it as a boy. The scar above his eyebrow that he'd always told people he'd gotten playing football, but had actually gotten hitting his head on a rock in a small park pond. His breathing deepened, his chest tightening as the truth settled in-heavy, cold, and impossible to ignore. He'd been living a lie for years, building his life around a foundation that had never been real. "So..." he began, turning toward Caramel, his voice no longer loud or angry-but dangerously calm, the kind of calm that precedes a storm. "She was actually the person that saved me." His