Nick stood up.

"I can't do this!" he said, "I don't care what the doctor says! I won't lie!"

"Lie?" Sofia couldn't imagine what he meant.

"We're Not engaged, Sofia! You dumped me, eight months ago, right after Dad died!"

"Michael's dead?" Sofia couldn't quite take it tin.

"He was killed in a car crash on what was supposed to be our wedding day." said Nick, "After that - I guess I acted like a jerk - but I was half crazy with grief! I was expecting you to show some sympathy - but you were too busy taking trips to New York with Matt Cory, and posing naked for him -"

"Posing -?" said Sofia, "This is some weird joke, right? I would Never - ! I didn't even want people to see a picture of me in a bikini! Remember? You bought up all the copies of the Herald, so I wouldn't be embarassed!"

"You changed." said Nick. "The girl I fell in love with - sweet, sensitive, kind of self-righteous - suddenly turned into a fickle slut, who turned her back on me the first time we had problems, so she could jump into bed with Matt Cory!"

"Jump into bed? Nick - you Know I want to be a Virgin on our wedding night!"

"It's too late for that now!" said Nick, "You and that Cory creep were going at it like demented minks when my father hadn't been dead a month!"

"I must have been out of my mind!" said Sofia, "Or on drugs!"

"I don't know what the heck you were." said Nick, "You weren't the Sofia I loved, that's for sure!"

He turned to leave.

"Nick, wait!" said Sofia, "Can't we start over? I love you!"

"That's what you say Now." said Nick, "But one of these days, you'll get your memory back and decide you'd rather be with Matt than with me. I don't need that kind of pain - not again!"

He closed the door behind him as he exited.

"NICK!"

****

"I now pronounce you husband and wife."

"My darling, my darling, my love and my bride!" said Sergei, sweeping Felicia into his arms for a long, passionate kiss.

"Isn't that Poe?" said Cass.

Felicia straightened up, flushed and smiling, and looked Agents Hill and Thomas in the eye.

"I hope you gentlemen are satisfied," she said, "because No Way are we inviting you on the honeymoon!"

"We want to be alone." said Sergei.

"That's Garbo." said Cass.

"All of you - go away, please." said Felicia. The two agents shrugged and departed.

Cass gave it one last try" "It's not too late! You can get an annullment!"

"Out!" said Felicia, shoving him out the door.

****

Meanwhile, Grant received a phonecall from Jordan Stark.

"I hope you've been thinking about our recent conversation. My terms are simple: put one million dollars into my account in the Bank of Boca Linda, or I'll turn that tape over to the police."

"Go right ahead." said Grant, "It's not admissable in court - and even if it was, what does it prove? I'll pay you nothing!"

"On your head be it." said Stark.

****

"Sofia?" said Matthew, "What's wrong?'

Sofia took up at him through tear-swollen eyes.

"Nick said - that I dumped him - that you and me are - are - lovers."

"It's true." said Matthew.

"It can't be!" said Sofia, "I Tried to make myself fall in love with you - just like I tried to stop lovin' Nick - but it didn't work! You and me could Never be anythin' more than friends, Matt!"

"You and I are in love, Sofia!" said Matthew, "We're engaged! We're getting married - and there's nothing Lila can do to stop it!"

"Who's Lila?"

"She's - the woman they arrested for trying to kill you." he said, "She says she didn't do it, but she was found standing over you, with blood on her hands - "

"What does this Lila have against me?"

"She wants me to marry Her - to give Jasmine a real home."

"Who's Jasmine?"

"Our baby - Lila's and mine."

"If this Lila has your baby, you Should marry her. It's your duty."

"I'm not in love with Lila!" Matthew yelled.

"You should have thought of that Before you had unprotected sex with her." said Sofia primly.

"I Love You!"

"But I don't love You, Matt!" said Sofia, "You say you and me are engaged? Well, the engagement is over! You're free! Go marry Lila! Act like a man!"

And nothing Matthew could say would budge her.

****

"Rachel Hutchins to see you, Mr Stark." said Ms Allen, ushering her into Stark's Inner Sanctum.

"Are you there?" said Rachel, peering at the form dimly outlined behind the desk, 'Why don't you put on the lights?"

"You'd regret it if I did, Rachel." said Stark.

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?" Rachel reached across the desk and found the switch of the lamp. Before Stark could stop her, she had turned it up high.

Stark threw up his hands to cover his face. "NO!"

"You might as well let me see it all." said Rachel.

"Very well." He lowered his hands.

Rachel took a good, long look at Stark's face. It was a mess of raw scar tissue and oozing sores.

"Now do you understand why I prefer the dark?" he said.

"Surely - you could get plastic surgery?"

"Perhaps. One day. I'm impressed, Rachel. Most women would have screamed."

"I'm not 'most women'." said Rachel, "I try not to judge by appearances. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, why don't you give me the Grand Tour?"

"How much do you know about the Lumina Foundation's work?"

"Psychic research, isn't it?"

"Much more than that, Rachel! Much more. The human mind is the Final Frontier! We haven't even Begun to develop our true potential!"

"To do what?" said Rachel, "Read minds? Fortell the future? Find lost objects - like my wedding ring?"

"That and more!"

****

Matthew was taking a solitary walk around the Cory Estate when he saw a light in Rachel's studio.

"Mom?"

"Not now, Matthew!" Rachel was making a sketch, in red chalk and charcoal. "I need to finish this while my memory is fresh!"

Matthew forced himself to stay silent until his mother set the drawing pad down.

"There!" she said, "That's the best I can do!"

Matthew looked at the sketch - and recoiled. "What IS it?"

"That's Jordan Stark."

"No wonder he never goes out in public!" said Matthew, then dismissed the subject. "I've got trouble, Mom. Nick told Sofia the truth, and now she says she doesn't love me, and it's my Duty to marry Lila!"

"Oh dear!" said Rachel, "Well, I'm sure she'll feel differently once she has her memory back!"

"I hope so!"

After Matthew left, Rachel contemplated her sketch. Then she got out a block of modelling clay, wet it, and began to knead it.

"Let's see what you look like in three dimensions." she said.

****

Nick had decided that there must be some sort of Cosmic Conspiracy against him; driving home from the hospital, he had turned the car radio to C-ROK, as usual:

"You know you made me cry- y/ I see no reason to deny-y/ I cri -i -ied for you-ou-ou/ Now I'm through/ And now you've changed your mi -ind/ I see no reason to change mi -ine/ You're giving me the same old line/ I'm wondering why/ You hurt me then/ You're back again/ No No No! Not a second time!"

With a muffled curse, Nick switched over to an Easy Listening station.

"Now you say you're sorry/ You've been so untrue/ Well you can cry me a river/ cry me a river/ I cried a river over you!

"Now you say you want me/ Just to prove you do/ Why don't you cry me a river/ cry me a ri-"

Nick tore the radio out of the dashboard and tossed out onto the highway.

When he pulled up in front of the farmhouse, Nick found Remy waiting on the porch.

"Nick? I've got my medical records! See?"

To be continued.