Page 21 of You Loved Me Once
Allison releases his hand then he kisses her lips. Tears well in my eyes but I push them down. I walked away from him. I gave him up, so I don’t get to be upset.
“Dr. Adams, do I need to sign the papers since I’m one hundred percent in?” Allison asks.
All of this is too much, she made me promise to let her die if the trial fails her.
I look down at the papers in my hand and nod because I can’t say a word now that he’s here. “Yes, of course, then I can put the script through.”
My feet drag as I make my way to the two of them, trying to stop staring at the gold band on his ring finger.
She signs the paper and Bryce watches me as my hand trembles, taking the form back. There’s a crack in his armor as a look of sadness washes over him before he squeezes his eyes shut, and when they reopen, it’s gone.
“Do you guys know each other?” she asks as we both study each other.
I clear my throat, trying to swallow the lump there and then shake my head. I’m not sure how to tell this woman that I spent half my life loving him, and that he broke my entire world. However, I’m not understanding how she hasn’t put it together. If they’re married, I’m sure they know about past relationships.
“Nope,” he speaks before me.
Okay, I guess not.
“But she asked . . .” Allison tries to speak, but he continues before she can finish.
“I don’t know. I’ve never met her before. Did you graduate med school from Duke? Maybe we went to the same school?”
Allison looks to me. I didn’t graduate from Duke for med school and he knows that, but I did get my undergrad there. Still, something tells me not to mention it. “I graduated from Northwestern.”
He shakes his head. “Then I have no idea where our paths could’ve crossed.”
Really? Really? You have no idea? I have a million of them.
How can he act like I never existed at all? We loved each other once. We planned an entire life together. I’d be a surgeon and he’d be an architect, we’d have two kids, live in Georgia where the weather was warm and I could do great things in Atlanta. Everything about the life we planned was perfect. He was perfect, and together we were unstoppable. Or so I thought.
I try to control my shock, but I jerk my head back slightly. I never expected a grand reunion, but I hoped if we ever saw each other again, it wouldn’t be like this. The tightness in my chest, the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, and the disbelief I feel is overwhelming.
For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I might break down and cry.
I need to get the fuck out of here.
“I’ll get your prescription in,” I say quickly. I can’t be around him and keep my composure. “The nurse will be right back.”
“Are you sure?” she asks curiously, glancing at the both of us before turning to Bryce. “You’re acting weird and very rude.”
Bryce brushes her hair back and presses his lips to her forehead. “No, sweetheart. I don’t know her at all. She looks like someone I knew in college, but she died about fourteen years ago. Couldn’t be the same person.”
He had to have known. He had to have heard my name and known he was going to see me.
Allison touches his arm. “Oh, that’s so sad.”
Bryce looks at me. “Yeah, it is, but it was a long time ago and I had forgotten all about her.”
And just like that, my heart shatters.
Chapter 6
Ilean my head against the wall and my entire life comes to a halt. Bryce is here, and his wife was accepted into my trial and apparently she has a death wish if this doesn’t work.
I don’t know how I’m meant to endure seeing her andhim—daily.
“You okay?” Martina asks. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
