Please Come Back, My Love Chapter 152

Elena: POV

I slapped him.

The crack of my palm against his cheek echoed through the toy department, sharp enough to make nearby shoppers turn and stare. 

The man—this stranger who'd just kissed me like a drowning man gasping for air—stumbled back a step, his hand flying to his reddening cheek, shock and disbelief warring across his handsome face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I hissed, my heart hammering against my ribs as I stepped protectively in front of Lila. 

Every instinct screamed that this man was dangerous, unhinged, possibly deranged. 

"You don't just grab random women and kiss them like some kind of psychopath!"

He stared at me like I'd spoken in an alien language, his hand slowly dropping from his face. 

When he spoke, his voice came out rough, broken. 

"Elena. It's me. It's Julian. How can you not—" He stopped, his throat working as he swallowed hard. "How can you not recognize me?"

"I don't know you," I said firmly, my pulse still racing from the unwelcome assault. 

I could still feel the ghost of his lips on mine, the desperate pressure of his hands framing my face, and it made my skin crawl. 

"I've never seen you before in my life, and what you just did was completely inappropriate. I could call security right now and have you arrested for assault."

Something flickered in his gray eyes—pain so profound it almost made me falter. 

Almost. 

But then I felt Lila's small hand grip the back of my coat, and my protective instincts surged forward again.

"But Mummy," Lila's voice piped up behind me, uncertain and confused, "he's the nice man who helped me find you. Why are you being mean to him?"

I glanced down at my daughter, whose earlier trust in this stranger now seemed dangerously misplaced. 

"Sometimes people do nice things and then do bad things, sweetheart. And what he just did was very, very bad."

"I'm sorry," Julian said, and his voice cracked on the words. 

"I shouldn't have—I just saw you standing there, alive, and I couldn't—" He stopped, running a shaking hand through his hair. 

"Elena, please. I know this sounds insane, but you have to listen to me. We know each other. We were—" He hesitated, his gaze dropping to Lila. "We were very close."

"I think you have me confused with someone else," I said, keeping my voice steady despite the way my hands wanted to shake. 

"My name is Elena Hunt, not whatever you think it is. And I've never met you before in my life."

"Hunt?" Julian's brow furrowed, genuine confusion crossing his face. 

"But your name is Vance. Elena Vance. You were—" He stopped, his expression shifting from confusion to something harder, more suspicious. "Why are you using a different name?"

"Because it's my name," I said, lifting my chin. 

"Elena Hunt. I've been Elena Hunt for the past four years, ever since I came to London. And I'm already married. There's no way I could have had an intimate relationship with you."

"Husband." The word came out flat, disbelieving. 

"You're married? Why?"

"Yes," I said firmly, even as something in his tone made my stomach clench with unease. 

"Why not? My husband and I are very much in love. Sir, please get a grip on yourself."

"Who is your husband?" He asked, and there was something almost desperate in his voice now. 

"How could you marry someone else?"

"Sir, that's none of your damn business. Back off or I'm calling the cops."

Just as the tension reached a breaking point, my phone rang—Alexander's ringtone. 

I answered quickly, grateful for the interruption.

"Darling, where are you?" Alexander's warm, familiar voice filled my ear, and I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders. 

"I've been waiting at the jewelry counter for ages."

"There's been a situation," I said carefully, watching Julian's face as I spoke. 

"Lila wandered off in the toy department. I found her."

"I'm on my way," Alexander cut me off, and I heard something sharp in his tone, something that might have been alarm.

The line went dead before I could respond.

I lowered the phone slowly, meeting Julian's gaze. 

"He's coming," I said.

Julian's jaw tightened. 

"I'd like to see who this husband of yours is."

"Mummy, why is the man so upset?" Lila tugged on my sleeve, her voice small and worried.

"It's okay, sweetheart," I said, smoothing her hair back. 

"He's just confused."

"Bad uncle!" Lila suddenly declared, her small face scrunching up with righteous indignation. 

She stepped out from behind me and planted her hands on her hips. 

"You made Mummy upset! You're a bad, bad uncle!"

I blinked, startled.

Julian's gaze had dropped to Lila, and I watched his expression soften into something almost tender. 

"You're right," he said quietly, crouching down to her level. 

"I am being a bad uncle. I didn't mean to make your mummy upset. I just... I thought she was someone I used to know. Someone very important to me."

"Well, she's not," Lila declared with all the certainty of a four-year-old. 

"She's MY mummy, and she doesn't know you, so you should go away and leave us alone!"

Then I saw Alexander striding toward us through the crowd, his tall frame cutting through the shoppers with purposeful elegance, and relief flooded through me. 

"Your father's here."

But when Alexander drew closer and his eyes landed on Julian, I saw his entire body go still. 

Something flickered across his face—recognition, shock, and what might have been guilt—before his expression smoothed into careful neutrality.

Julian rose slowly to his feet, and I watched his face transform from grief-stricken confusion to something cold and furious as he stared at Alexander.

"Uncle," Julian said, and the word came out like a curse. 

"What a surprise to see you here. With my wife."

The world tilted beneath my feet. 

*Uncle?* I looked between the two men—Alexander, whom I'd trusted for four years, and Julian, this stranger who claimed I was his wife—and felt everything I thought I knew crumbling.

"Julian," Alexander said evenly, and I heard the careful control in his voice. 

"I'd heard you were still in New York. I didn't expect to run into you in London."

"I'm sure you didn't," Julian said, his voice dripping with venom. 

"Just like I didn't expect to find my supposedly dead wife living with my uncle, using a fake name, raising a girl." His gaze dropped to Lila, and I saw his jaw clench.

"Alexander?" I said quietly, my voice shaking. 

"What is he talking about? Why is he calling you his uncle?"

Alexander's jaw tightened. 

"Elena, I can explain—"

"Then explain," I interrupted, my voice harder than I intended. 

"Explain why this man knows who you are. Explain why he's calling you his uncle. Explain why he thinks I'm his wife."

"Because you are," Julian said, and there was such profound pain in his voice that it made my chest ache. 

"Or you were. We were married for three years, Elena. And then you disappeared, and I thought—" His voice broke. "I thought you were dead."

"Stop it," I said, my hands clenching into fists. 

"Just stop. I don't know you. I don't remember any marriage. I don't—"

"Of course you don't remember," Alexander said quietly, and there was something that might have been regret in his voice. 

"You have amnesia, Elena. When I pulled you from the river four years ago, you'd been in the water for hours. You had a severe head injury, and when you woke up, you didn't remember anything."

The words hit me like a physical blow. 

River. Head injury. Amnesia. It all fit with what I'd been told about my accident, but—

"You pulled her from a river?" Julian's voice was low, dangerous. 

"When?"