“We do our best.”
“No one could survive a secret like that.”
She swallowed and held back so much, she didn’t even know where she’d even begin. “I suppose not.”
He circled around her, while she was panting silently in place. Her chest heaved.Why was she so afraid of what he was saying?
He leaned into her ear and whispered. “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”
She turned her head to face him beside her. Her eyes surely throwing daggers at the man. “Not a clue.”
In a matter of sixty seconds, Clyde managed to completely destroy Liz with his words. An accusation she refused to believe. And she wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the undeniable tension between her husband and his brother. She wanted to scream, cry, accuse the man before her of being a liar. But all she could manage through blurred vision was to open the door and ask the wicked man to leave. She barely acknowledged the look on his face when he walked out, but she imagined that he left quite pleased.
Her chest was on fire as she made her way to the sofa. She was disoriented and the usual dull pain in her head was now blindingly sharp. It was unbearable, the pain. Which ached more, her chest or her head, she couldn’t tell. She was being swallowed by short memories. Flashes of Matt being angry and seemingly resentful for no known reason. Everything was becoming clear despite her head spinning like the globe. She wondered what would possess someone to act like they loved them while being utterly disgusted. She managed to get up the stairs. There was no way she could stay in that apartment.
Chapter 37
MATT
It was going to be different from here on. He was going to do everything in his power to bring Liz back. He’d let it go on too long, relishing the absence of a woman who had betrayed and hurt him. Appreciated the new and innocent wife he had in her place for however long he chose. But it was wrong. He was keeping an innocent woman hostage from getting her life back. Sickened at his own actions and betrayal, he closed his eyes to pull himself together before walking back into his apartment. A deep breath helped stabilize him before entering. He knew what he would do.
He’d apologize for demoralizing her existence earlier. He couldn’t understand how he thought it would help. Lizzy wouldn’t hear him. She was never that easy.
Instead, he was crushing the heart of her placeholder, a woman who only had him to turn to and who opened her heart to him. He’d make it up to her. He’d make her see that it’s her he loves in every way that counts, and she wasn’t going away, she would just remember more of what they’ve shared.
The moment he walked into their apartment, the air seemed thick, and dread settled within him, his stomach locked tight as Liz emerged from the den.
Could the words he had left her with this morning have changed her? Trigger her?
She wore dark jeans and a black blouse. The colors were off for her. Since he’d brought her home from the hospital, she had seemed to prefer all of Lizzy’s bright colored sun dresses.
“How was your visit with my doctor?” Her tone sent chills through him.
“Productive,” he responded without looking into her eyes. “We, uh…discussed some things that might trigger your memory,” he added.
“Like what?”
Matt looked up at her. “I don’t know, I guess we’ll know it when we come across it. I just want you to focus on the good things.”
“Is that what you’ve been trying to do? Steer me from things I may not want to remember?” she asked curiously.
Matt narrowed his eyes at her. “Would that be a terrible thing?”
“Of course not,” she started as he turned to go up the stairs. “What would be terrible is if you would keep me from remembering anything at all,” her voice turned icy.
Matt turned his head back slowly to face her. A new stranger, not the innocent, curious and open-hearted woman he’d brought home weeks ago. This woman was accusing, demanding, bitter, and frigid.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ve been trying to ask you the same thing for weeks, Matt. And you refused to give me an honest answer. You could barely look at me, blew me off with short answers to my eager questions, pretending to be preoccupied with deep concern, when you were just trying to figure out how to tell me our marriage was over,” her voice grew louder and angrier.
She didn’t have her memory back.
No.
This still wasn’t Lizzy. This was a new side to her placeholder, as he’d recently began to refer to her. It was an easy tell. No matter how angry Liz would get, she always had a soft glow behind her eyes. Eyes that carried life, love and warmth within them.
The eyes he was looking into now were cold, hateful and hurt. The kind of hurt where you realize everything you’d been told was a lie and you really have no one to turn to. His wife would know that could never be true.
