Mr. Wilson sat behind his desk, his eyes lidded with drowsiness and hair unkempt from staying the night at work.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Mr. Wilson searched the pile of papers scattered before him for his phone. After pushing aside a stack of financial documents, he found the buzzing device. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes as he placed the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hello. Is this Mr. Wilson?” a high-pitched feminine voice came from the other side. Getting hold of a business tycoon’s phone number was a challenge, so Mr. Wilson assumed this was an important call. As such, he straightened his posture and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Speaking.”

“We’re calling from Tilet General Hospital. I’m here to deliver some unfortunate news about your daughter, Andromeda Wilson.”

Mr. Wilson’s blood ran cold. Had something happened to his beloved daughter? Why was she at the hospital?

His voice trembled as he asked, “What happened to her?”

“She’s been involved in a very serious traffic accident. She sustained multiple second and third-degree burns and is in critical condition. It’s likely that she’s going to need facial reconstruction,” the reception lady said.

Mr. Wilson abruptly stood at a loss for words. His body trembled as she delivered the news. His precious baby was hurt?!

“Facial reconstruction? Why? What happened to her face?”

“She-The crash caused serious damage to her bone structure and facial tissue. Unfortunately, our hospital is unable to perform facial reconstructions-“

“Transfer her to the Central Wilson Hospital,” Mr. Wilson interrupted. “Immediately.”

“Pardon?” the reception, startled by his request, was at a loss for words. “Ah, yes, sir. We’ll have to call the hospital firs-“

“No, you won’t.”

The lady at the other end of the phone frowned. Dealing with impudent guardians wasn’t the highlight of her day. “Sir, that’s not how-“

“I’m Ulysses Wilson.”

The woman paled when she heard his name and immediately looked down to check the patient's information once more. As she reread the guardian’s name, her hands froze.

‘Patient: Andromeda Wilson’

‘Guardian in Case of Incapacitated or Disabled Person: Ulysses Wilson’

The phone in her hands nearly fell, and everything snapped into place in the receptionist’s mind. She was speaking to the CEO of the Wilson Group!

“Oh, my goodness! My deepest apologies, Mr. Wilson!” Her tone immediately became polite. “I’ll do that right away, sir.”

On the other end, Mr. Wilson quickly hung up the phone and pulled his blazer from the back of his office chair. As he rushed out of his office, he made a phone call to his wife, ignoring his employee’s curious glances.

“Honey, meet me at Central Wilson. Our baby’s in trouble.” His voice cracked at alternating syllables as his breathing became ragged from hyperventilation.

Mrs. Wilson, who took his call in an extremely important meeting, froze. “What did you say? She’s in the hospital?” She pulled the phone away from her ear. “My apologies, Mr. Charles. We’ll have to discuss this at a later date.”

She whisked her purse from her chair and rushed to the parking lot in heels. A worried expression was plastered over her face as she made back-to-back phone calls, alerting the Rossi’s and asking for updates from the hospital.

***

White lights blurred April’s vision as she weakly attempted to look around. Her eyelids felt like they were weighed down with 10-pound bricks, and her body felt glued to the soft, plush bed.

She exhaustedly looked to her right to see unfamiliar faces. Who were these people? She’d never seen them in her life.

But as much as April wanted to ask about her whereabouts, her mouth stayed shut, and her eyes couldn’t help but flutter shut as she slipped back into her unconsciousness.

The next time April awoke, she managed to keep her eyes open for a few seconds longer. In those few seconds, she glanced around to find herself surrounded by white walls and the rhythmic hum of beeping.

She looked around. An aging man and woman sat beside her bed, fast asleep. Streaks of dried tears marred their faces. April reached out to touch them and see if they were real, but before she could, her eyes slammed shut.

***

Beep. Beep. Beep.

April’s eyes fluttered open, her lashes like budding butterflies. A white ceiling stared down at her from above.

A gasp from April’s right startled her, and she looked to see the owner of the voice. A beautiful woman stood at her right. Despite the streaks of grey in her hair, her features were as youthful as they could be.

The woman’s eyes teared up, and she placed her perfectly manicured hand over her mouth. “Andromeda,” she cried out, taking April’s hand in hers. “Honey, call the doctor!”

Andromeda? Who was that?

“Who are you?” were the words April attempted to say, but a feeble groan was the only thing that left her mouth.

Shortly after, a doctor in a white coat came rushing in. But April’s voice cords refused to make a sound in response to his questions.

The doctor brought over a pen and paper, allowing April to write down her answers. But instead of describing how she felt, she wrote, “Who are you?”

The doctor smiled kindly. “I’m Doctor Stevens.”

April shook her head, dissatisfied with the answer the doctor gave. Instead, she pointed at the other woman and man in the room. Who were they? And why were they here?

April had no recollection of these two people. Perhaps they were her new managers. But if so, why would they be so emotional after seeing her wake up?

Doctor Stevens’s face paled, and he glanced at the couple with a worried expression. “Do you not remember who they are?”

April shook her head.

The woman April had first seen upon waking up gasped loudly and sank to her knees beside April’s bedside. Relentless sobs wracked her body, and her severe reaction alarmed April. Did she forget something?

April searched through her memories, but she was positive this woman wasn’t part of them.

“This is your mother.” Doctor Stevens pointed to the crying woman. “And this is your father.” He pointed to the man rubbing the back of the woman.

A frown formed on April’s face. Something was terribly wrong. April’s mother committed suicide when she was five, and her father passed away from cancer when she was 18. This she was sure of.

April furiously shook her head, refusing to accept these imposters as her parents.

Suddenly, a mirror at the opposite end of April’s room caught her eye. It hung directly across her bed, and as April looked into it, the face staring back at her shocked her.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out. Fear tore through her body as she scrambled to the top of the bed, ignoring Doctor Stevens’s frantic calls for her to calm down.

April touched her face. The woman in the mirror touched her face.

But the woman in the mirror was not her. Her eyes didn’t slant upwards, nor did cheekbones sit so high on her face.

“Andromeda,” Doctor Stevens reached out. “Calm down.”

April shook her head as she wrote, “Who is Andromeda? Who are you? Where am I? What happened to my face?” on the paper she’d been given.

When her ‘mother’ saw the questions she had written, she slumped to the ground, and her eyes rolled back into her head.

“Honey!” April’s father cried out as he caught her body before her head hit the ground. “Doctor Stevens, what’s going on?” he demanded.

“I-I, It looks like she may be suffering from m-memory loss. We’ll have to ch-check if it’s temporary or not,” Doctor Steven stumbled over his words, terrified that he may anger the CEO of the Wilson Group.

***

A knock at the door startled Percy, who had been so entranced by his work that he had lost track of everything around him.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Your mother. Percy, can I come in?” Her familiar voice soothed Percy’s tensed body.

“Yes. Come in.”

The door to Percy’s office creaked open, and a familiar figure stepped through the doorway.

“Andromeda woke up, sweetie. You should go visit her.”

Percy suppressed a frown at the mention of that woman’s name. As far as his mother knew, he was madly in love with her, but in all honesty, he wouldn’t have minded if that woman never woke up at all. She annoyed him to no end. The past three weeks without her had been peaceful—just the way Percy liked it.

“I’m busy.”

But when Percy looked at his mother’s expression, he sighed in exasperation. To his parents, a partnership with the Wilson Group was critical.

“Fine,” Percy sighed as he stood up and picked up his blazer from his office chair.

As he walked past his mother, she shouted, “Make sure to bring her some flowers.”

With his back turned, Percy scowled.

But as much as he didn’t want to please Andromeda, he found himself stopping by the flower shop on the way to the hospital.

“A bouquet of chrysanthemums, please,” Percy said. After growing up with Andromeda, he knew everything about her. Or at least, he thought he did.