She stilled, her dark eyes guarded and angry.
He couldn’t stand seeing her so vulnerable. At that moment, he could sense how alone she felt. He wanted so much to comfort her, but it was too late for that.
“You don’t need to know what happened,” he softened. “That’s not a part of your life you need to concern yourself with,” he took a small careful step in her direction. “Yes, okay, I was angry and I continued to be after your accident, when I should have just...” his voice broke. “I should have pushed all that aside and been the man you needed, the husband you needed. Instead of…making you question my love.”
Tears escaped her eyes. “Do you love me?”
“No,” he crept toward her. “I don’t know you. I love my wife, the woman I built memories and trust with. When we both went to Dr. Tai and he was hypnotizing you…you started to tense and cry and panic and I just—I couldn’t do it that way. I couldn’t let it all come crashing down on you,” he stepped closer. “That’s when I decided to help you myself, in my own way. No one in this world knows you better than I do, Lizzy. But then we got home and I realized—I wasn’t ready. If you remembered everything, I’d have to…” he trailed off.
“End it…officially.”
“No,” he said abruptly and almost defensively. “I’d have to…make a decision. I wasn’t ready. Especially since…”
“You were falling for the innocent stranger?”
He stared at her.
“Yeah—no one in this world knows you better than I do, either, Matt.”
Raising his voice, he was inches from her. “It wasn’t easy for me either Liz. I know why you lost control and crashed. Your whole world was falling apart, but so was mine! You had it easy; you made a mistake and all you needed was a ‘forgive and forget’. Well I was the one who needed to do that. I was the one who needed to find a way to live with it, to look at you and say to not only you–but to myself that it was okay,” he turned and ran his fingers through his hair.
Tears rolled down her cheek and there was nothing he could say or do to stop them.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, frozen in place.
He stepped toward her, prepared to hold her and tell her she had nothing to be sorry for. None of this was her fault. He needed her to believe her innocence. He needed her to see that he was only here to help her. To save her. He reached out to her and she pulled away, a hateful expression in her eyes.
“Don’t touch me. You brought me here because you felt obligated. Because I had no place else to go,”
“Liz,” he began to protest.
She ran off up the stairs.
Chapter 38
LIZ
Liz ran into their bedroom, frantic and angry. Her chest ached when he reached for her downstairs because she wanted him to reach her. She needed him to. But with all the strength she had left, she pulled away. She couldn’t do that to him. After he’d put up with having to look at the woman who betrayed him, without confrontation, without expressing his hurt and anger. She would save him from any more of it.
She dragged out a small rolling suitcase she’d finished packing before he got home. She would give him the space he needed. Maybe one day soon, she’d wake up remembering everything and maybe Lizzy was the type of person to come crying and begging for forgiveness.
Somehow she doubted that.
There was a place she could go. You can never go wrong with family, right? The only other person in the world she had left.
“Where are you going?” Matt asked as she grabbed what she needed from the bathroom.
“I’m going to stay with Marcus,” she answered as she shoved the contents of her suitcase.
“You don’t want to do that,” he warned. Something about the way he said it sounded haunting. As if it would be the last place she’d want to go.
“Well, I can’t stay here,” she replied, flatly.
“Yes, you can. You should stay here, you shouldn’t be anywhere but your home.”
She shut her suitcase closed, angrily. “That’s what you told me weeks ago, and where did that get me? I still have no idea who I am, and I can’t remember a damn thing. You’ve been nothing but toxic to my mind.”
“Don’t go to your brother’s. If you wake up tomorrow and remember, you’ll hate me even more than you do now, knowing I let you,” he paused, anguish in his eyes. “Trust me on this,” he added.
