“Liz.”
“Apparently, they’ve been trying to get us to visit for weeks now,” she continued, beaming, yet her voice growing louder.
“He probably just forgot,” his mother blurted. She didn’t seem so sure of herself now. Confrontation was never something his mother could handle.
“I thought I was the one with the memory loss.”
“I didn’t forget anything, Liz,” Matt announced angrily.
“Can you two please do this someplace else?” Rob barked.
“Fine.” Matt stood abruptly.
“I meant another time, Matt, we’re having dinner,” his father softened.
Matt ignored his father and held out a hand to his wife. “Lizzy?”
She glanced at him. “You know I would, but I seem to get a lot more answers just from other people at this table,” she grinned widely at the others seated. Then turned to him, her eyes cold. “I get nothing from you.”
He felt the flames traveling up his neck before they flashed through his eyes. He was surely turning an angry color and was about to raise his voice until he caught a warning look from both his parents.
Breathing out slowly, he looked at his wife, thoughtfully. “Please.”
Thankfully giving in to his pleading look, she rose from the table and followed as he led them into the first bedroom down the hall. Closing the door behind them, he spun her around to face him. “Look, I can see you’re angry, but that wasn’t necessary. there’s a— ”
“What? A perfectly good reason for keeping me from your family, the only family I really have?” she insisted. “Telling them that I wasn’t ready? Why, why would you do that?”
“I know it doesn’t make sense to you, but Liz, I’m just—I’m following doctors’ orders, you need to trust me.”
“What doctor’s orders?”
“That your memories need to come back in a certain order.”
“But he said they would naturally, Matt. You’re keeping things from me. No, you’re keepingsomethingfrom me,” she insisted, pointing a finger at him. “Is it something that happened that weekend?”
The look on her face suggested she wasn’t letting this go. She was growing tired, he could see it in her eyes every time he slipped and would reveal any type of resentment toward her. He couldn’t help it. It was all too fresh.
He’d noticed a pattern, too. Every time he would try to remind her about their love and their history, he’d fall into the moment alongside her. And then remember that moments before her accident…he’d decided to let it all go.
To forget it, forget her.
Ironically, she’d been the one to forget it all.
And it hurt. Even at no fault or control of her own, she’d forgotten all the amazing memories and years together. The only one he’d wished she’d permanently forget was when he left her to go to Ireland. When he told her he needed space. For years, he’d considered it to be the biggest mistake of his life. He never imagined how big a mistake it was, until a few weeks ago.
“Honey, if there was something you absolutely needed to know, I would tell you.”
She looked at him and frowned, as if that wasn’t a good enough answer. She ran her fingers through her hair and turned away from him, clearly frustrated. With her face in her hands, she quietly paced a small distance before lifting her head. Her exasperated expression slowly fading, she intently scanned the dimly lit room’s surroundings, with extreme interest.
“I’ve been in this room before,” she muttered.
Matt’s head shot up.
“Recently,” she continued, almost in a whisper.
Matt glanced around and wanted to slap himself. What was he thinking? His head screamed to get her out of there—as quickly as possible. But he was frozen in place.
Liz took small steps, her eyes focusing on random objects in the spacious room, then the window and then finally settling on the chair.
