Page 21 of Help Me Remember
“Help you?”
I nod. “What would you do if you wanted to know something?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I need help. I can’t drive, I would have to get a taxi, but that would leave me wandering around aimlessly while I tried to figure out how to remember my life.”
“No, that’s not an option.”
“Then you have to help me. You’re one of the country’s top investigative reporters, right? You can probably catch this person before I even need my memory back. Please, you have to. I don’t want to do this alone, but you know I will. I’ll go back in time, and . . . I don’t know where to start, but I’ll pick somewhere because I can’t just sit around and do nothing.”
His face scrunches, eyes narrowing a little in thought. “You can’t be roaming around Oregon either.”
“Then you do it with me. Treat me like a news story. Where do we even begin?”
“This is crazy.”
Maybe it is, but it’s what I need.
After a small stretch of silence, Spencer sighs. “I would go back to the beginning, back to the very last thing I could remember, and work my way forward from there.”
“The beginning for me is a few months after graduating grad school. If I want to start to make sense of all of this, I need to start there.”
“Brie . . .” Spencer’s voice is strong with warning.
“If you don’t help me, I’ll do it on my own. You know I will.”
His deep sigh leaves his lungs, and he refuses to meet my eyes. “Holden was clear that you need to let this happen naturally.”
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I should sit around and hope that maybe the memory will come back. You are the best investigative reporter in the world. You have been involved with unearthing the truth on mysteries that no one else could. This isn’t that grand, but it’s that important.”
His gaze drops. “I want you to remember your life, Brielle.”
I move my hand to his cheek, resting it softly there. “Then help me.”
ChapterFive
BRIELLE
“Are you sure you want to head home?” my mother asks as she helps me fold the clothes on the bed.
“I can’t stay here.”
“It’s only been four days. It can’t be that bad.”
Oh, but it is. My mother is trying and is in pain, but she’s driving me nuts. I can’t move without her fussing over me.
Not to mention, Addy is leaving and my mother has her life in California. I haven’t had any flashes or memories since the funeral, and I’m getting more anxious as the time slips by. I need to go to the beginning and work my way to the present, not that I know what that is. I guess it would be the last solid part of my life that I fully remember. My mother would flip her shit if she knew I was planning this.
“It’s not bad, Mom. You just have things to do and I need to sort my life out,” I explain.
“Yes, but you’ll be alone,” Mom says with concern. “I can’t just leave you like this.”
“I’m not alone.”
“You won’t have me or your broth—” She stops herself. “You will be here without any family.”
“I have Spencer, Emmett, and Holden. They’re good substitutes for the time being.”
