THE HEIRESS VOW - Chapter 216

Chapter 216: Fractured Memories
The silence was thick and oppressive, like a suffocating blanket as Ava stood at the edge of the chasm, staring into the swirling void below. Her heart pounded, though she couldn’t understand why. The dark expanse beneath her called with a pull so primal it twisted her insides, yet something held her back.

A whisper brushed against her mind, familiar but elusive. “Ava…”

She blinked, shaking her head. The voice seemed distant, like a memory lost in the fog of time. Ava’s thoughts were fragmented, like shards of a shattered mirror—each piece reflecting something, but none giving her a complete image. Who was she? How had she come to this place?

She took a step back from the edge, feeling the cold stone beneath her boots. The world around her was bleak, a barren landscape of rock and mist, devoid of life. There was something unnervingly familiar about this place, but the harder she tried to grasp it, the more the memories slipped away, like grains of sand falling through her fingers.

Ava’s mind was a tangled mess. She could sense that there was something important, something crucial she had to remember, but it was buried deep, hidden beneath layers of fog and confusion.

The sound of footsteps behind her made her tense, and she instinctively turned. Lucas stood a few feet away, his face strained, his eyes filled with worry. He didn’t move closer, giving her space, but his presence was heavy with emotion.

“Ava,” he said softly, his voice rough, as if he had been holding back tears for hours. “Please. Talk to me.”

She stared at him, a flicker of recognition crossing her face, but it quickly faded. Lucas was a stranger to her now, a figure from a past she couldn’t grasp. He seemed familiar, and yet distant, like a dream half-remembered.

“I… I don’t know who you are,” Ava whispered, her voice trembling with uncertainty. The words felt foreign, wrong somehow, but they were all she had. The truth, or at least, the only truth she could grasp in the moment.

Lucas flinched, pain flashing across his face. “You don’t mean that. This… this is the Abyss talking, not you. You know me, Ava. You have to remember.”

She looked down at her hands, trying to focus, trying to pull something, anything, from the fragments of her mind. But the more she tried, the more everything blurred, like trying to recall a dream after waking.

“I don’t,” she said, more firmly this time, though her heart ached at the look in his eyes. She didn’t understand why his pain affected her so deeply. “I’m sorry… I don’t remember.”

Lucas took a step forward, desperation flickering in his gaze. “This isn’t you. I know the Abyss has taken your memories, but I can help. We can fix this. You just have to trust me.”

Ava wanted to trust him. There was something about him—something in the way he spoke to her, the way he looked at her—that stirred feelings deep inside her chest. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t real. She didn’t know him, didn’t know anything anymore. All she had were these fractured pieces of a life that felt like it belonged to someone else.

“I can’t,” she whispered. “I don’t even know who I am.”

Lucas’s jaw clenched, and he ran a hand through his disheveled hair, his frustration and anguish clear. “You’re Ava. You’re my Ava. And we’ve been through too much for this to end here. Please… just fight it. Fight the Abyss. I know you’re still in there.”

Ava closed her eyes, the words “my Ava” echoing in her mind. What did that mean? Who had she been before? She could feel something stirring within her, memories struggling to resurface, but they were distant, blurry.

A cold gust of wind swept across the barren landscape, carrying with it a voice—soft, seductive, and chilling. The Abyss whispered to her, tugging at her soul, pulling her toward the void.

“Let go,” the voice urged. “You belong to us now.”

Ava shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. The pull of the Abyss was strong, so strong it made her dizzy, but something else flickered beneath the surface—a memory, faint and fleeting, but enough to make her pause.

A flash of warmth, laughter, and a familiar face—Lucas, smiling, his eyes filled with affection. The memory was brief, but it was real. She had known him once. She had cared for him.

Lucas saw the change in her expression, the flicker of recognition, and he seized the moment. “Ava, I know you’re scared. I know it feels like everything is slipping away, but you’re not alone. I’m here. I’ve always been here. Just hold on to that. Hold on to us.”

His words washed over her, and for a brief moment, the fog in her mind lifted. She remembered his face, his voice. She remembered him.

“Lucas…” she murmured, the name feeling familiar on her tongue, but as quickly as it came, the memory faded, slipping back into the abyss like everything else.

She stepped back, panic surging in her chest. The Abyss was pulling her again, stronger this time, like an invisible force wrapping itself around her soul.

“I can’t,” she said, her voice breaking. “I can’t hold on. It’s too much. I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know what’s real.”

Lucas’s face twisted in anguish, but he didn’t move. He stood there, his hand outstretched, his eyes pleading. “Ava, please. Don’t let go. Not now. Not after everything.”

But it was too late. The pull of the Abyss was too strong, the voices too loud. Ava felt herself slipping, the fractured pieces of her mind shattering further, drifting into the void.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the words barely audible.

Before Lucas could respond, a shadow moved in the distance. Zephyr stepped forward, his presence commanding and dark. He wore a knowing smirk, as if he had been waiting for this moment all along.

“She’s gone, Lucas,” Zephyr said, his voice smooth, but laced with malice. “The Abyss has her now. And there’s nothing you can do to change that.”

Lucas turned to face Zephyr, fury igniting in his eyes. “No,” he growled. “I won’t let you take her.”

Zephyr’s smirk widened. “She was never yours to keep.”

Ava stood frozen, torn between the two men—Lucas, who represented a past she couldn’t remember but longed to, and Zephyr, who embodied the dark, seductive power of the Abyss.

“Come, Ava,” Zephyr said, his voice low and coaxing. “The Abyss is where you belong. Embrace it. Embrace me.”

Ava felt the pull again, stronger than ever, but she also felt something else—a spark of resistance, a tiny fragment of herself that hadn’t yet succumbed to the darkness.

Her fractured memories flickered once more. The pieces didn’t fit, but they were there, and they were hers.

She had a choice to make.