Stone's Throw

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>AJ</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Captain Stone your wife is alive.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Three years ago my wife-the woman who made my world brighter who laughed at my corny jokes and chased every adventure with me-vanished without a trace. No clues. No answers. Just an empty aching silence.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Until a call from a doctor in Mexico changes everything. She's alive. But she doesn't remember me-or herself. Still when I'm close she leans toward me a small instinctive motion that feels like a promise.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Her memories return in shattered fragments-pieces of the life we built tangled with shadows too dark for her to face alone. All I can do is hold her. Protect her. Love her. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>And I'll burn down the world before I let the men who took her touch her again.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Grace</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Your husband is here.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Those words should mean safety. Instead they terrify me. I don't remember my name my age or any of the terrible things the doctor says happened to me. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>AJ's wild blue eyes and whiskey-smooth voice draw me in a steady anchor against the panic. And when he holds me? I feel safe. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The past comes back in fragments-charcoal sketches on paper flashes of laughter and touch sensations swallowed by shadow. Never enough to make me whole.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>AJ looks at me like I'm his everything and I want-I need-to believe a love that deep can survive anything.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>But with every memory comes fear. The men who stole me once might try again. As I struggle to piece myself back together one thing is certain: AJ will risk everything to keep me safe. And maybe-just maybe-I'll find my way back to him before it's too late.</span></p><p></p>