Remember me? (gxg)

Chapter 16

"What's going on?" Holly asked as she watched Mermaid putting clothes in a suitcase as though she was packing to leave. "Mermaid, what're you doing?"

She demanded as Mermaid hurriedly moved from her closet to the suitcase. She was in such a rush she didn't even take the time to neatly arrange the clothes.

"Allison," Holly said.

Mermaid stopped.

The fact that she responded to her real name frightened Holly. She knew Mermaid, she knew her heart but she was yet to know Allison. It didn't matter whether it was the same person, the fact was, she was unaware of Mermaid's past and it was building up to the person she was becoming.

When Mermaid turned around, it was Allison looking back at her.

"What's going on?" she asked.

There was fear and panic in her eyes. It was so evident, it was penetrating into her.

"I have to leave the ranch," Mermaid said as she straightened up. Even her posture was different.

"Why?" Holly asked, knowing what she'd long feared had now become reality.

"I don't belong here." She picked up the clothes she'd dropped on the floor and put them in the suitcase.

"You remembered," Holly said.

"Everything," Mermaid said.

"And you're going to leave just like that?" Holly felt like Mermaid was holding her heart in the palm of her hands.

"Yes," Mermaid said.

"Don't they deserve a proper goodbye?" Holly asked, taking herself out of the equation as she referred to her family.

"They do, but I'm not brave enough to do it," she said.

"Mermaid." How could it have come to this so soon? Why was she leaving? And why in such a hurry? Hadn't she said she wanted to live there in the ranch?

"My name is Allison," Mermaid said.

Holly felt her heart breaking. "What about us?" She took a step forward, desperately wanting to reach for her.

"There is no us."

An uncontrollable wave of anguish overcame Holly. "What are you saying?" This wasn't Mermaid. She couldn't be the one standing there, saying those horrible words.

"I wasn't myself." She turned away from Holly.

"So everything that happened..." Holly could feel the tears burning the back of her eyes.

"Wasn't real," Mermaid finished the statement for her.

"So this is how it ends?" Holly asked, her voice heavy with emotion.

*

Mermaid took a deep breath. She was doing everything she could not to go to Holly. There was a part of her that wished she'd drowned in that sea. Why had she been spared? To come and hurt these innocent people? She'd given up. She'd died. Why was she still alive? Hadn't she suffered enough? And now, here she was inflicting pain on the woman she loved.

If Owen had not seen her face that day at the supermarket, she would have happily continued living her life in the Mackenzie ranch because it was the happiest she'd ever been in her entire life.

But the fact that he'd, the fact that he'd recognized her from the shocked look across his face, that changed everything. It was just a matter of time until Shawn came for her.

She'd watched him kill a man. She knew he'd not hesitate to kill any of the Mackenzie family members or anyone else that got in his way. She couldn't risk putting them in such danger. Not when she'd come to love them so much, which was why she was being so cold to Holly. She could not submit to weakness when the result meant causing her harm.