Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
My voice was quiet. “Was she in a lot of pain?”
“Yes—at times, she still is. Her headaches still trouble her. When she’s upset, she gets confused and forgets things. They aren’t sure if that’s irreversible or if it will go away. The accident left her with a permanent limp.”
I hated the thought of her in pain. “She hasn’t remembered anything?” It had been months. “This whole time?”
“No.”
“Vivian told me she had an email with Ally’s resignation.”
“Alex doesn’t remember Vivian either. She came to work at the hospital around the time Alex’s memory is gone. Sarah sent the emails, I think. If she was responsible for the texts to you, I assume she did the emails. She told Alex the hospital felt she was too great a risk to have working there, so she’d been let go. She had Alex’s tablet and phone the whole time.”
I snorted. “Sarah tied up all the loose ends, didn’t she? How very methodical of her.” I flexed my hands, my fingers aching from being held in a tight fist for so long. “Why does nobody here know what happened? Why the secrecy?”
Emma and Alan exchanged a look. Alan spoke this time. “Emma and I were talking about that. This is conjecturing on my part, but I think they saw this as the perfect opportunity to get rid of you. If no one knew what happened to Alex and she simply moved, you couldn’t find her if you came looking. No one would ask many questions if they thought it was a decision made by Alex. She was such a private person, it wouldn’t seem out of character. They got control of her life again, and they could push her in the direction they wanted her to go.”
I arched my eyebrow. “Big risk, considering her memory could come back.”
Alan nodded. “I think they thought it was a risk worth taking.”
Emma broke in. “She hasn’t remembered anything, and now I wonder if that’s why they kept her in Calgary. No memories of you or her life here with you. Although…”
“What?” I prompted.
“Alex showed me her tattoo and asked me when she got it. I told her I didn’t know since I’d never seen it before. I knew the camera had to do with you, and I tried to ask her a few things, wondering if maybe it would jog her memory.” She frowned. “Did you give her a leather band she wore around her ankle?”
A memory of the day I gave it to her flashed through my mind. “Yes.”
“It was in her things from the hospital. She put it on—Sarah hated it, but Alex refused to take it off her ankle. She said it belonged there. She didn’t know how, but it did. I brought it up, hoping to stir something in her head.”
“It didn’t, obviously.”
“I think it did. She became upset and agitated. She got a terrible headache, and Sarah was furious with me. She pulled me out of the room and told me if I tried to talk about you again, she wouldn’t let me see her anymore.”
My heart sped up. Somewhere, lost inside Ally’s head, there had to be memories of me. Of us.
She and Alan exchanged another glance, and Emma’s eyes filled with tears. She excused herself, and I looked at Alan. “Is there something I should know?”
He shifted in his seat. “The accident…Emma was pregnant when it happened, Adam. She lost the baby because of it.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He swallowed before he spoke. “We’d been trying for a while, and she finally got pregnant—we found out just before the trip. But…” His voice trailed off, and he had to clear his throat before continuing. “She’s been struggling ever since. Only our families know. But it affected her deeply, and she hasn’t been herself. She didn’t consciously give up on Alex, but she’s been coping with her own issues.”
“Ally doesn’t know?”
He shook his head. “Emma didn’t want to burden her, with everything else she was struggling with.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I murmured. “You must have been devastated. Is she going to be all right?”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
We shared a look, one that we understood—the knowledge of how much we loved the women in our life.
Emma slipped back into the room, and without a thought, I pulled her into my arms and hugged her. I knew she and Ally had drifted apart a little—life did that to even the closest of friends at times—but I also knew how much Ally loved her. She would want to comfort her friend. I offered the only thing I could.
“I don’t blame you in any of this, Emma. The fault is mine. Please know that.”
“Looking back, I know I should have pushed more.”
I huffed a deep sigh. “Looking back, I should have done so many things differently. I shouldn’t have gone on assignment, and I should never have left again until I found her. Let’s not do the whole blame thing and just figure this out, okay?” I asked.