Chapter 956

"Mr. Kaufman, are you alright?"

The guards noticed his sudden collapse, but Connor couldn't form the words to respond. It wasn't until his bodyguards rushed in from outside and saw him writhing in agony that they dragged him to the car and sped toward the nearest hospital.

Connor had no idea what was happening. A torrential flood of shattered memories slammed into his consciousness, playing frame by frame like a broken film reel. He desperately tried to grasp the disjointed fragments, but they kept slipping through his fingers.

When Violet described the fatal crash, the mental dam finally broke. He could vividly feel his parents' bodies crushing him to the floorboard, shielding him. He could feel the searing heat of the inferno roaring behind him, the suffocating wave of a fiery shockwave.

They had thrown themselves over him to keep him alive. The horrifying screams of a man and a woman burning alive echoed endlessly in his ears. He remembered the paramedics pulling him from the wreckage, and Marcus wrapping him in a tight embrace, whispering frantic comforts.

As a terrified child, he could do nothing but scream for his mom and dad. But the seed of vengeance had already been planted. Marcus had taken him away. The ensuing memories were fractured-flashes of growing up with his uncle, and hazy afternoons with Gwyn. He remembered playing games on a tablet with her, but whenever he tried to focus on her face, a splitting headache blinded him.

Connor was rushed into the hospital, where doctors quickly ran a full battery of tests before rolling him into the emergency room.

Three grueling hours later, they wheeled him out. He looked completely catatonic. As the anesthesia wore off, he lay motionless in the hospital bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The fog had finally lifted. He remembered everything.

The horrifying truth of his parents' death. His childhood with Gwyn. The vile woman he had just visited in prison. He finally knew exactly who she was.

Yes, Violet was the one who murdered his parents. She was McNeil's sordid little secret, the very reason Victoria and McNeil's marriage imploded. A cascading chain of tragedy, all stemming from one woman.

He had been, too young to fully

understand it all back then, but he had absorbed every hushed conversation between Marcus Eleano. Then the second car

ver

accident had wiped his

clean. He and Gwyn had lost touch for so long that he had forgotten the feisty little girl who played video games with him, the girl he had helped fight a wicked woman for her mother's love.

while

With his memories fully restored, Connor's romantic infatuation with Gwyn evaporated, replaced by a profound, protective brotherly bond. He realized that falling for her amnesiac was simply his subconscious clinging to the girl he Had adored im his childhood. Even after losing his memories, his soul had remembered his promise to protect her.

Connor Kaufman remembered everything. He just prayed it wasn't too late.

If he weren't in the middle of a

deadly mission, he would have flown straight back to Greenvale to tell Gwyn that her childhood Best friend. was back. But right now, he had to hunt down Felicia. The Greenvale police force couldn't touch her in the lawless territory she operated in.

Sending cops in there was a suicide mission. No one was going to bring Felicia to justice through official channels. Connor knew he had to finish this himself.

Before he was discharged, he made a call to Gwyn. His voice was deep and steady, utterly devoid of his usual reckless bravado.

"Gwyn, it's me. Connor."

Gwyn froze at the sound. His voice had matured since they were kids, but the protective, familiar warmth in his tone was unmistakable. It was the exact same voice that used to lecture and comfort her all those years ago.