Page 19 of Forget Me Not

AFTER

forget

me

not

Chapter One

Reed

She’s real. For seven years, I’ve believed them. Took them by their word that she was nothing more than a dream. A figment of my imagination. That the amnesia was playing tricks on me, my damaged brain confused about what was real and what was fantasy. It was easy to believe them. She felt like a fantasy.

But she’s not. I know she’s not. And I have to find her. Only I haven’t a clue how the hell I’m supposed to do that. All I have is the memory of her face. Her beautiful face. And a name. Cooper. I don’t know if it’s her first name or her last name, I just know that’s what I call her. Cooper. It’s everything to me. It’s nothing to go on.

I can’t ask anyone for help. No one can be trusted now. I feel like an idiot ever believing any of them. I wonder if Sam knows. Would she have kept this from me? Would she have been willing to marry me, knowing this secret, this part of me, part of my past that would haunt us forever? I don’t want to believe it. But, I can’t rule it out.

There’s a knock at my window. Startled, I turn to find a cop leaning down to see into my car and I hurry to roll down the window.

“Sorry, officer. Am I in a bad spot here?”

“Well, I can’t tell you not to park here, but it’s not a place I’d recommend lingering too long.” He straightens up. “I just wanted to be sure you weren’t having any sort of car trouble.”

“No, sir.”

He eyes me one more time, up and down. I’m still wearing the same suit from yesterday evening. Tie’s undone and everything is wrinkled from sitting in the car all night. Probably doesn’t look so good when you add to that the way my car is parked in the brush in the curve of the highway.

“You have a rough night?”

“You could say that.” Might as well be honest. Just because no one else ever is, doesn’t mean I can’t keep telling people the truth. “I was supposed to get married today.”

The officer nods, uncomfortable understanding moving over his weathered face.

“Just don’t stay here when traffic picks up. This place sees a lot of accidents.”

I know.

I muster a grateful smile and he taps the roof of my car with his hand, signaling his departure.

He’s nearly back to his vehicle again when I yell out, “There was one here back in 2010. Bad wreck. Small pick-up versus a semi. Semi’s driver fell asleep, ran the truck off the road where it wound up wrapped around a tree.”

The officer turns back slowly. “End of July. The kid driving the truck barely looked old enough to be driving it.”

“I was eighteen. My birthday was a week earlier.” I had a big party. Or so, I’ve been told. I don’t remember it. Even if I’ve seen the pictures a million times. I was there. She wasn’t.

“Son of bitch.” He shakes his head in disbelief, staring at me like he’s seen a ghost. “You pulled through. They didn’t think you were gonna make it.”

“Almost didn’t.” This part I do know. Everything after the accident is crystal clear. At least the parts I was conscious for.

He comes back toward the car and stops a few feet short. “What about the girl?”

“The girl?” No one ever told me about a girl. Was she in the truck? Was she here?

He looks confused. “Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong accident.”

“I don’t think so.” I open the door and climb out. “Please, you have to tell me what you know about the girl. The accident...it caused damage. Permanent damage. Memory loss. I only know what people have told me.” I must sound like an idiot. Or a mental patient. Any minute now, he’ll be calling this in. I never should have said anything.

His brow furrows and he studies me. I’ve had people staring at me just like this a million times over the last seven years. I hate it. But I’m used to it. Sooner or later, they get used to the idea that I have no knowledge of what happened during the first eighteen years of my life.

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