The first meeting was at ten.
Maggie had warned me about it before I even reached my office. She appeared in the doorway with her tablet and her tight bun and her eyes that kept getting wet every time I said something normal.
"You have the quarterly review with department heads at ten," she said. "They've been preparing for two weeks."
I stared at her. "I'm supposed to run a meeting?"
"You've run this meeting every quarter for twelve years."
"I don't remember any of it."
Maggie's lips pressed together. She was doing that thing again. Holding back.
"You don't have to remember," Lucas said from behind me. He'd followed us in and was standing by the window now. "You just have to be there. I'll help."
I looked between them. Maggie, who'd served me for twelve years. Lucas, who'd stayed for five. Two people who had every reason to leave but chose to stay.
"Okay," I said. "Let's do this."
---
The conference room was at the end of the hall. Glass walls. Long table. Chairs around it, all of them filled with people in expensive suits.
When I walked in, they stood up.
All of them. At once. Like a wave.
I stopped in the doorway. Lucas's hand was at my elbow, but I barely felt it. I was too busy looking at their faces. The fear. The tension. The way some of them wouldn't meet my eyes.
This is who I was, I thought. This is who they expect me to be.
I walked to the head of the table. Lucas pulled out my chair. I sat.
No one else moved.
"Please sit," I said.
They sat. Slowly. Carefully. Like they were waiting for me to change my mind.
I looked at the faces around me. Most of them were older than me. Experienced. Powerful. And they were all looking at me like I was the most dangerous person in the room.
"Before we start," I said, "I want to tell you something."
No one spoke. No one breathed.
"I don't remember any of you."
A man near the middle shifted in his seat. Another one, an older man with silver hair, raised an eyebrow.
"I woke up two days ago with no memory," I continued. "I don't remember this company. I don't remember the work we do. I don't remember any of the meetings I've had with you."
Someone coughed. Someone else whispered something I couldn't hear.
"I'm not telling you this because I want sympathy," I said. "I'm telling you because I need your help."
That got their attention. Help. The CEO asking for help. It was so unexpected that a few of them actually leaned forward.
"I don't know what I'm doing," I admitted. "I don't know how to run a company. I don't know what we're working on. I don't know any of the things I used to know." I took a breath. "But I want to learn. And I can't do that without you."
The silence stretched. I could feel Lucas behind me, steady, waiting.
Then the man with silver hair spoke.
"I've been with Chen Group for twenty-three years," he said. His voice was deep. Calm. "Your father hired me."
My father. I didn't remember him either.
"I've watched you grow up, Miss Chen. I've watched you take over this company and make it stronger than it's ever been." He paused. "I've also watched you push people away. Including me."
I felt my chest tighten. "I'm sorry."
He shook his head slowly. "Don't apologize. I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad. I'm telling you because..." He stopped. For the first time, his voice wavered. "Because I've been waiting for you to say something like this for a very long time."
He stood up. Walked around the table. And held out his hand.
"My name is Harold Harrison. Your father called me Harry. You call me Mr. Harrison. Always have. Always will." A small smile cracked his stern face. "But maybe today, you can call me Harry."
I stood. Took his hand. His grip was firm, warm.
"Hello, Harry," I said.
He squeezed my hand. His eyes were wet.
"Hello, Vivian."
---
The meeting lasted two hours.
I didn't understand most of it. Numbers. Projections. Deadlines. Terms that meant nothing to me. But I listened. I asked questions. I said "I don't understand" more times than I could count.
And slowly, something shifted.
People started to relax. The fear in their eyes faded, replaced by something else. Curiosity. Surprise. A few of them even smiled.
At noon, Maggie appeared in the doorway.
"Lunch," she said. "Do you want it here or..."
"Here," I said. Then I looked around the table. "Does anyone want to eat with me?"
Another wave of silence. Then Sophie, who'd been sitting at the far end taking notes, raised her hand.
"I'll stay," she said.
Mr. Harrison nodded. "I'll join as well."
One by one, others agreed. By the time the room cleared, there were six of us. Lucas. Maggie. Sophie. Mr. Harrison. A woman named Priya from legal. A young man named Kevin who'd been hiding in the corner with a laptop.
I looked at them. At this strange group of people who'd spent years being scared of me.
"Thank you," I said. "For staying."
Kevin looked up from his laptop. "You're not going to fire me for saying something stupid?"
I blinked. "Why would I fire you?"
"Because last time I was in a meeting with you, I said the wrong thing and you told me to clear my desk."
My stomach dropped. "Kevin..."
"It's okay," he said quickly. "It was two years ago. I almost quit. But Lucas talked me out of it." He glanced at Lucas. "Said you were going through something. That it wasn't personal."
I looked at Lucas. He was staring at the table.
"What was I going through?" I asked.
No one answered.
"Please," I said. "I need to know. Who was I? What was happening?"
Mr. Harrison spoke first. "You were engaged. To a man named Alexander Pierce. He was in business. One of our competitors, actually."
My heart started pounding. Alexander. The name from the photo.
"It was a merger," Mr. Harrison continued. "Your father's idea. The two companies would combine. You and Alexander would run it together." He paused. "It was supposed to be the biggest deal in the industry."
"What happened?"
"The day before the wedding, Alexander called it off. He'd been seeing someone else. Your best friend, apparently." Mr. Harrison's voice was flat, but I could hear the anger underneath. "The merger fell apart. The company almost collapsed. And you..." He stopped.
"I what?"
"You locked yourself in your office for three weeks. You barely ate. You barely slept. You fired anyone who tried to help." He looked at me. "When you came out, you were different. Colder. Harder. The Vivian we knew before... she was gone."
I sat there, trying to absorb it. The wedding. The betrayal. The three weeks locked in an office.
"Was there a notebook?" I asked suddenly.
Everyone looked at me.
"A red notebook," I said. "Marlene at the café said I used to write in it. Before. Did I have one after?"
Maggie's eyes went wide. She looked at Lucas.
He nodded slowly. "There was a notebook. After Alexander left, you wrote in it every day. You never let anyone see it."
"Where is it?"
No one answered.
I stood up. "Where is it, Lucas?"
He met my eyes. "I don't know. When you came out of your office, you had it with you. But after that..." He shook his head. "I never saw it again."
I sat back down. The notebook. The red notebook where I wrote when I was happy. And then again, when I was broken.
What was in it? What had I written in those dark days? And where did it go?
Sophie touched my arm. Her pink nails were bright against my pale skin.
"We'll find it," she said softly. "Okay? We'll find it."
I looked at her. At Kevin, who'd almost quit because of me. At Mr. Harrison, who'd known me since I was a child. At Maggie, who'd stayed for twelve years. At Lucas, who'd loved me when I was at my worst.
They were here. All of them. Even after everything.
"Why?" I asked. "Why are you all still here? After what I did to you?"
The room went quiet.
Then Kevin said, "Because you gave me a job when no one else would."
Maggie said, "Because your father asked me to take care of you before he died."
Mr. Harrison said, "Because I've known you since you were a little girl, and I knew the real you was still in there somewhere."
Sophie said, "Because you smiled at me this morning. And for the first time in three years, I wasn't scared."
I looked at Lucas. He was the last one.
He didn't say anything. He just looked at me. And in his eyes, I saw everything. The five years. The coldness. The small moments of warmth he'd held onto. The hope that one day, I'd come back.
I didn't know what to say. So I said the only thing I could.
"Thank you. Thank you all."
Sophie squeezed my hand. Kevin smiled. Mr. Harrison nodded. Maggie wiped her eyes.
And Lucas, standing in the corner with his hands in his pockets, smiled too.
---
That night, I lay in bed thinking about the notebook.
Where was it? What was in it? And why did I hide it?
I closed my eyes and tried to remember. The fog was still there. Thick. Gray. But somewhere in the distance, I thought I saw a flash of red.
I'm going to find you, I thought. I'm going to find you, and I'm going to remember who I was.
Outside, the city glittered. And somewhere out there, my past was waiting.