Karen Barrett - Hers To Remember

“At our house.”

That threw her. “Our house?”

“Yes, yours and mine.”

“We live together?” She’d never seen this man before in her life. How could he possibly claim they lived together? How could Vaughn believe he’d get away with such an outrageous lie? How did they plan to prove it?

Her stomach dropped when she realized she might actually have helped them prove it, when she’d told the doctor she was Amy Delaney and Sam was her husband.

“Yes, we do live together.” Sam looked at her closely, as if waiting for a reaction. “We’re…married.”

Adrienne saw red as anger overwhelmed her. She’d told the doctor this man was her husband, and now he was actually trying to prolong the charade. This man wasn’t here to protect her. He was using her.

She stared at the man who claimed to be her husband, trying to figure him out. What made him think he could get away with this?

What she saw in his expression confused her. His blue eyes held more than a hint of concern. In fact, he looked almost afraid.

Which was just as ridiculous as everything else that had happened in the past couple of hours. What did he have to be afraid of? She was the one who didn’t know what the hell was going on!

“Amy, are you all right?” Sam asked, reaching out.

She jerked her hand back before he could touch her again. Anger and confusion warred inside her. Anger won. “I’m just ducky. I love being called by somebody else’s name. I never saw you before today and you’re claiming I’m your wife. On top of that, you’re actually trying to tell me that I fell in front of your truck three years ago and I got this bump on my head tripping over a cord in ‘our’ house. How could I not be all right? I’ve stumbled into some damn rabbit hole!”

Sam stared at her as if she’d turned into the rabbit. “You don’t believe me.”

Trying to rub away the pain once again pounding against her forehead, Adrienne felt suddenly weary. “Of course I don’t believe you.”

He reached over and retrieved the newspaper he’d brought with him. He laid it on her lap. “Look at this.”

She glanced down at the paper. The headline dealt with some foreign political problem. “Look at what?”

“The date,” he said.

She read the date. She read it again. “This can’t be real.” Frantically, she searched each page for some sign this was a mocked-up version of the newspaper.

She looked at Sam. “Tell me this isn’t real.”

“I can’t, honey. It is real.”

“How can it be?” Her head began to swim. Tears threatened. She swiped them away. “How can I have forgotten three years of my life?”

“Oh, sunshine.” Sam gently wiped the tears that refused to be stayed. “You did more than that.”

Adrienne felt so tired she couldn’t even raise a protest at this intimacy. “What do you mean?”

“Until you woke up in the hospital today, you’d forgotten everything about yourself and your past.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know who you were or where you came from. You had identification that gave us your name and your address, but—”

“Wait!” she interrupted. Putting her hands over her burning eyes, she tried to think. She’d had identification? That couldn’t be right. She’d been running away. She’d left her driver’s license and credit cards behind, she knew it. A vague memory prodded her brain. A man handing her something, her handing him a thick envelope in return. She looked at Sam. “What name was on the ID?”

Sam gazed at her searchingly before he answered. “Amy Nichols, from Los Angeles, California. Casey tried to find your phone number, but it was unlisted. He had a friend go to the address listed, but they had never heard of Amy Nichols.”

Of course they hadn’t, Adrienne thought. Because she had never lived in Los Angeles, and she wasn’t Amy Nichols.

“We ran your picture in the L.A. Times, as well as the local paper,” Sam continued, “but no one came forward.”

“No one?” She needed the clarification. She needed to know the fake ID had worked.

Sam shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

The words were so simple and heartfelt, she knew they were the truth.

I’m safe!

The words burst into her brain. He hadn’t been following her that night. The accident had been just that. Vaughn hadn’t insisted on seeing her in the hospital for no other reason than he wasn’t here. She laughed out loud. She was safe.

Adrienne could hardly believe it. Because of the ID she’d bought before she left Boston, they’d only run her picture in California. Vaughn never would have seen it in Boston. Of course, that’s why she’d chosen the Golden State. Vaughn thought it an intellectual wasteland. It never would have occurred to him that she would choose to live here.

Fast on those thoughts came another, more fantastic than the ones before.

“The baby?”

Sam nodded.

“It’s yours?” Please, God, let him say yes. Let it be anybody’s but Vaughn’s.

Sam smiled.

Again, Adrienne laughed, then immediately burst into tears.

Sam moved to sit on the bed. Putting his arms around her he held her tight. “It’s all right, sunshine. I promise. I’m a great guy once you get to know me. You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”

Adrienne heard his crooning words and knew she had to tell him. “You don’t understand.”

“I do understand. This has all been too much for you. Finding out about the amnesia. Learning you’re living with a stranger, and pregnant on top of that. I know how upset you are.”

Adrienne’s tears turned back to laughter. The poor man was so intent on comforting her he didn’t understand at all. She pulled away. “I’m not upset!”

Sam looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“And I’m not hysterical, either.”

His expression turned skeptical.

She didn’t blame him. If what he’d told her was true, and it seemed it was, her head and her emotions had been playing tricks on her for a long time.

She smiled wryly. “All right, maybe a little hysterical, but wouldn’t you be, under the same circumstances?”

Sam returned her smile. “I’d be a blithering idiot.”

Adrienne doubted that. In spite of all that she’d put him through during the past few hours, Sam’s actions had been sure and steady. She suspected she was very lucky to have Sam as her baby’s father. “I’m just so glad the baby’s not Vaughn’s.”

“Vaughn?”

“He has no hold. He can’t hurt us.” As long as she and the baby belonged to someone else, he couldn’t do a thing.

The truth was he probably never had. She’d been so careful. It was only once she’d arrived at her destination that she’d become afraid again. One strange noise had sent her running. How foolish!

“Amy.”

And how wonderful to know that the noises she’d heard on her walk had been only that. Not Vaughn. Noises. But that night, the fear had been so real, it had sent her flying through the trees and onto the road where she’d fallen.

“Amy.”

Even now, some of the fear remained. She’d lived with it for so long it was hard to let go. But she would, now she knew three years had passed. Three years in which she’d met a man, fallen in love, gotten married, gotten pregnant, and she remembered none of it! Incredible.

“Amy!”

It took her a few moments to realize he was talking to her. “I’m sorry. There is just so much to take in.”

“I understand that, but there’s something I have to know.”

She looked at him curiously. His tone seemed almost angry. “What is it?”

“Who’s Vaughn?”

She grimaced. “My husband.”

Sam scowled. “Your husband?”