Karen Barrett - Hers To Remember

Casey touched his arm. “Calm down, Sam. It’s not this young lady’s fault.”

Sam glared at him. “No, it’s mine for letting you talk me into going with you.”

Casey smiled, not in the least intimidated by his brother. “Wanna beat me up?”

“Yes,” Sam growled. “But I don’t have time right now. I have to check on Amy.” He pushed past his brother, only to stop abruptly.

Striding down the hall toward them was Dr. Yamana, looking as concerned as he felt.

He moved to meet her. “Dr. Yamana? Is my wife okay?”

“She’s fine, Mr. Delaney, physically. But there’s something we need to discuss.” She took his arm. “Let’s go down to the waiting room.”

Sam scowled at her emphasis of the word physically. What did that mean? Had she found out about the amnesia? He looked at his brother. Casey shook his head.

The gesture to be cautious was unnecessary. Sam knew as well as Casey the value of remaining silent until you knew the whole story. He let the doctor lead him to the little room he’d grown to hate. Casey followed.

Inside, he sat down next to her on the cranberry couch. Casey took a chair across from them. “What’s going on, Doctor?” Sam asked.

“I’m afraid your wife’s concussion has left her with a bit of amnesia.”

“Amnesia?” Sam said, trying to buy some time.

The doctor nodded. “I asked her some questions about herself. It’s part of the procedure when a patient has suffered a head injury. She couldn’t tell me her birth date or your anniversary. All she knew was that her name is Amy Delaney and that you, Sam Delaney, are her husband.”

Sam felt rocked to his soul. If she knew she was his Amy, why had she told him her name was Adrienne Winston? What about this Vaughn person, had she mentioned him? One look at the closed expression on his brother’s face told him not to ask. “She actually told you, Doctor, that her name is Amy Delaney?”

The doctor nodded. “Yes, but that’s about all she could tell me. She became very concerned that her amnesia would keep her in the hospital, but I assured her that we would probably only keep her overnight. Her head injury is relatively minor. With rest, she should be herself in a few days.”

Sam tried to be relieved, but Casey’s doubts kept going through his mind. Maybe she really was Adrienne Winston. Maybe she lied about being Amy Delaney for the same reason she ran away.

“Can I see her, Doctor?”

“Of course, but try not to stay for long. She, and your baby, need her to rest as much as possible.”

Sam nodded, but he was only going through the motions of understanding the doctor’s words. The fact was, he didn’t understand anything that had happened in the past few hours.

A beeper went off. Both Casey and Dr. Yamana checked their devices. Dr. Yamana smiled. “Duty calls. I’ll check on your wife in a couple of hours, Mr. Delaney. Try not to worry. These things are usually temporary.”

After she left, Sam looked at Casey. “Temporary? Is this the end, Casey? Has Amy finally remembered who she is after all these years?”

Casey’s shrug was anything but casual. “We won’t know for sure until we talk to her.”

Sam half laughed. “Then why aren’t I running down that hall right now?”

Casey regarded him with compassion. “Because you’re afraid you’ve lost your wife, Sam. But you have to stop thinking that way. The woman you’ve spent the last three years loving loves you, too.”

“Does she?” Sam wondered.

“Of course she loves you,” Casey assured him.

Sam appreciated his brother’s loyalty, but he was practical enough to face reality. Amy hadn’t recognized him. If she told the doctor her name was Amy Delaney, it wasn’t because she’d remembered. And if she didn’t remember being Amy, she wouldn’t remember loving him either. A deep anger stirred inside him. He’d be damned if he’d allow one stupid accident to take his wife away from him!

He picked up a newspaper he found lying on a table, turned and left the room.

“Sam, wait up!”

Ignoring his brother’s call, he strode down the hall toward Amy’s room.

Casey caught up to him outside. “What are you going to do?”

Unable to discount the alarm in Casey’s voice, Sam took a couple of calming breaths before answering. “I have to tell her who she is.”

“You don’t know who she is, Sam,” Casey reminded him.

Sam shook his head in denial. “She’s my wife. She’s carrying our child. No matter what happened in her life before I found her that night, that will never change.”

“Maybe you should wait until the doctor gets back,” Casey said reasonably. “She thinks Amy has a simple case of amnesia. Even you and I don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. Amy might need a doctor nearby.”

Sam seriously considered his brother’s suggestion. He didn’t want to make things worse for Amy. She was already scared enough. That thought decided him. “I have to tell her now, Casey. If the danger she’s so afraid of did happen three years ago, she has a right to know it’s long in the past.”

Casey nodded his understanding. He put a supportive hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You want me to go with you.”

Sam shook his head. “Wish me luck,” he said and pushed open the door to his wife’s room.

Adrienne watched Sam warily as he walked into the room. The doctor had left to talk to him. What had she said? Had she seen through her act?

Sam set the newspaper on the side table, then pulled up a chair and sat. “Hi.”

Adrienne returned his greeting, but left it at that. For now, she would let Sam lead the conversation. Once she knew what he’d been told, she’d handle it from there.

“You must have gotten some rest. You look a lot better.”

She nodded. “Thanks, I feel better.” It was obvious he was stalling. She wondered why.

Sam cleared his throat. “The doctor says you have amnesia.”

Adrienne nodded again, then, to avoid his intent gaze, looked down at her hands. Her fingers were clenched together, an obvious sign of nervousness.

He reached over and separated her hands. “Relax, honey, everything is going to be just fine.” Laying them gently on the blanket, he touched her left ring finger. She’d taken off her ring before she left Boston, but the mark from it remained. “Dr. Yamana said you only remember that your name is Amy Delaney and that I’m your husband.”

She opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say.

Sam smiled. “It’s okay, you don’t have to talk.” His smile faded. “There are some things you need to know about your accident.”

His comment surprised her. “I was running, and I fell.” It seemed simple enough.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Into the road, right in front of my truck. It scared the hell out of me. Thank God, my brakes were good or I might have hit you.”

The anguish in his eyes touched her. She reached out to him. “I’m sorry.”

He took her hand in his and smiled. “You’ve more than made up for it in the last three years.”

Shocked, she drew back. “Three years? What are you talking about?”

“The accident you remember took place three years ago,” he said gently.

“But…” She reached up and touched the bandage on her head.

“This was caused by something entirely different. You were vacuuming. You slipped on the cord and hit your head on the vacuum.”

“I was vacuuming!” This had to be a joke. She hadn’t vacuumed in years. She and Vaughn had always been too busy for housework.

Vaughn. This had something to do with him. Was he trying to prove her insane? Crazy people weren’t reliable witnesses. The police wouldn’t believe a word she said.

She looked at Sam, deeply disappointed. She’d hoped he was different, that his gentleness was genuine. Now it seemed he was just someone Vaughn had sent to do his dirty work. Maybe he was the one she’d heard coming after her the night of the accident.

She hoped Vaughn had paid him well. His acting ability appeared to be top-notch. He’d almost had her fooled.

Well, one thing was clear. She couldn’t let him know she’d figured out their plan. She decided to test him.

“Where was I vacuuming?”

“At our house.”

That threw her. “Our house?”

“Yes, yours and mine.”

“We live together?” She’d never seen this man before in her life. How could he possibly claim they lived together? How could Vaughn believe he’d get away with such an outrageous lie? How did they plan to prove it?

Her stomach dropped when she realized she might actually have helped them prove it, when she’d told the doctor she was Amy Delaney and Sam was her husband.

“Yes, we do live together.” Sam looked at her closely, as if waiting for a reaction. “We’re…married.”

Adrienne saw red as anger overwhelmed her. She’d told the doctor this man was her husband, and now he was actually trying to prolong the charade. This man wasn’t here to protect her. He was using her.

She stared at the man who claimed to be her husband, trying to figure him out. What made him think he could get away with this?

What she saw in his expression confused her. His blue eyes held more than a hint of concern. In fact, he looked almost afraid.

Which was just as ridiculous as everything else that had happened in the past couple of hours. What did he have to be afraid of? She was the one who didn’t know what the hell was going on!

“Amy, are you all right?” Sam asked, reaching out.

She jerked her hand back before he could touch her again. Anger and confusion warred inside her. Anger won. “I’m just ducky. I love being called by somebody else’s name. I never saw you before today and you’re claiming I’m your wife. On top of that, you’re actually trying to tell me that I fell in front of your truck three years ago and I got this bump on my head tripping over a cord in ‘our’ house. How could I not be all right? I’ve stumbled into some damn rabbit hole!”

Sam stared at her as if she’d turned into the rabbit. “You don’t believe me.”

Trying to rub away the pain once again pounding against her forehead, Adrienne felt suddenly weary. “Of course I don’t believe you.”

He reached over and retrieved the newspaper he’d brought with him. He laid it on her lap. “Look at this.”

She glanced down at the paper. The headline dealt with some foreign political problem. “Look at what?”

“The date,” he said.

She read the date. She read it again. “This can’t be real.” Frantically, she searched each page for some sign this was a mocked-up version of the newspaper.

She looked at Sam. “Tell me this isn’t real.”

“I can’t, honey. It is real.”

“How can it be?” Her head began to swim. Tears threatened. She swiped them away. “How can I have forgotten three years of my life?”

“Oh, sunshine.” Sam gently wiped the tears that refused to be stayed. “You did more than that.”

Adrienne felt so tired she couldn’t even raise a protest at this intimacy. “What do you mean?”

“Until you woke up in the hospital today, you’d forgotten everything about yourself and your past.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know who you were or where you came from. You had identification that gave us your name and your address, but—”

“Wait!” she interrupted. Putting her hands over her burning eyes, she tried to think. She’d had identification? That couldn’t be right. She’d been running away. She’d left her driver’s license and credit cards behind, she knew it. A vague memory prodded her brain. A man handing her something, her handing him a thick envelope in return. She looked at Sam. “What name was on the ID?”