Anne Ha - Her Forgotten Husband

Samantha gave him a questioning look.

“Law school,” he explained. “She’s finishing her second year.” He decided he’d given Samantha enough information to absorb for one night. “How’s your headache?”

She closed her eyes briefly. “Better, but the medication they gave me isn’t very strong. I guess they didn’t want to hurt the baby.” As if suddenly reminded of the new life growing inside her, she cupped a hand to her abdomen. She grinned at him, her eyes alight. “We sure got started on our family fast, didn’t we?”

Garrick grimaced. Now what the hell was he supposed to say to that?

He racked his brains for the right response.

It didn’t come.

If he told Samantha the truth about the baby’s conception… Well, he didn’t know how she’d react. But after her romanticized version of their relationship, she was sure to be upset.

Samantha continued, unaware of his inner turmoil. “After ten years of being madly in love with you, I couldn’t wait to start a family, right? Or was it just because you’re, er, extremely virile…? No point going to Hawaii if you’re gonna spend the whole week inside the hotel room, anyway, eh?”

“I guess not,” he said, feeling trapped. He was pretty damn close to lying by omission at this point.

He should just tell her everything. That was the honorable thing to do. But when he opened his mouth, no words came out. He just stared at her beautiful features, which were so much more happy and relaxed than they’d been twenty minutes ago, and couldn’t bring himself to burst her bubble.

“Two months,” Samantha continued in wonderment. “I bet I never thought I’d get pregnant that quickly. Did you?”

“Uh, not exactly.”

She paused, tapping her chin. “Is that why we fought?”

“Why we fought?” he repeated.

“Yes. When I woke up, you asked if I was still angry. So we must have had a fight, right? Was it about the baby?”

Garrick nodded reluctantly. She might have lost her memory, but her instincts were right on. They had been fighting about the baby right before she drove off. But it wasn’t what she thought.

Samantha’s brows drew together. “You don’t want the baby, do you?” She shut her eyes. “Oh, gosh, no wonder I got amnesia. I don’t want to remember that you don’t want our baby!”

“Sam,” he said, leaning forward, “I want this baby, and I have since the moment you told me you were pregnant. Nothing could make me give it up.” And it was the truth. Despite everything, he already loved the child she carried.

“Then why were we fighting?”

He sighed. “I can’t explain that right now. I don’t even understand it myself. It was all a big mistake, which you’ll realize when you’re better.”

“You want the baby?”

“Yes, I want the baby.”

Samantha sank back against the cushions, an expression of relief on her face. She folded her hands over her belly. “The doctor said it’s May,” she mused. “So am I going to give birth in December?”

Oh, good Lord. She’d always been too mathematical. “November, actually.”

Her eyes widened. “November?”

“Early November,” he said, feeling as if he’d just stepped off the edge of a precipice.

She stared at him. “Garrick, exactly how long have I been pregnant?”

“About twelve weeks,” he admitted.

“Oh…Oh, no.” She shook her head slowly. “You married me because I got pregnant, didn’t you?”

How could something be true and yet so completely false? He remembered how quickly his shock at her pregnancy had shifted to elation—and how he’d hated himself for that weakness. He’d had to force himself not to blurt his proposal on the spot, but to pull back behind a screen of disinterest, treating the situation as he might treat a sensitive business deal. “Not exactly.”

“Then why?”

“I married you,” he said, “because I thought we had a good chance of being happy together.”

They did. Ten years of friendship was the strongest basis for marriage he could imagine.

“And because you got me pregnant,” Samantha said.

“Your pregnancy did have something to do with it,” he admitted.

She looked disappointed. “You don’t love me?”

If she only knew what she was saying! But he couldn’t tell her the truth. Even amnesia wasn’t enough to erase the past ten years.

Garrick kept the emotion from his voice, just as he’d done when he’d proposed. “Love isn’t always the most important thing, Sam…Sometimes friendship can be enough.”

He didn’t love her.

Sure, he’d married her and wanted their baby, but he didn’t love her. He’d spent the whole night by her side, but he didn’t love her.

It wasn’t right, Samantha thought the next morning as Garrick checked her out of the hospital. Something felt wrong. She might not remember who she was, but she knew, just knew, she wouldn’t have wanted a loveless marriage.

So why had she married him? Only because she was pregnant? That didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t have slept with him unless…

She loved him. She loved him. Obviously the adolescent love she’d imagined last night had been all too real.

But he hadn’t loved her back.

Had she known? Had she willingly settled for a one-way marriage in order to be with her childhood crush? Or had she thought their feelings were mutual? Maybe she’d found out he didn’t love her, and that was what they’d fought about, what had made her such a terrible driver the night of her accident.

Maybe he’d let her think he loved her to get her to have a fling, but then it had backfired when she’d gotten pregnant.

She considered Garrick as he helped her into his dark green sedan, his touch warm and reassuring on her arm. He radiated confidence, strength and purpose. He didn’t seem like the devious type, she thought, the type to take advantage of a young girl’s crush.

Which left a distressing alternative. Maybe she’d taken advantage of him.

Samantha watched Garrick circle to the driver’s side, his dark hair lifting in the wind. Today he wore a blue chambray shirt and casual khaki chinos. He looked every bit as sexy as he had last night, and again she felt the pull of attraction and desire. He was an incredibly handsome man.

Could she have done it?

She didn’t want to face the possibility, but she couldn’t ignore it: she was pregnant, and he’d admitted that had something to do with their marriage. So had she set out to seduce him? Had she planned to get pregnant to entrap him?

If she had, she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to regain her memory.

Garrick pulled out of the hospital complex and joined the flow of traffic down the hill. “Feeling okay?” he asked her. “Does it upset you to be in a car?”

Samantha shook her head, unable to voice her troubled thoughts. Deliberately she smiled and relaxed her grip on her purse. “I’m fine,” she said. “The car doesn’t bother me at all.”

It was true, too. Garrick’s car felt comfortable, solid and sturdy, and he drove with competent ease. She wondered how many times she’d ridden in it with him.

Reaching the bottom of the hill, they drove along a few city streets and then uphill again on a steep, curvy road. The trees arching over the roadway were thick with spring leaves, and warm air swept in through the open window. They passed large houses set back from the road.

Nothing was familiar.

“Have I been on this road before?”

He glanced over at her. “It’s the quickest route from your old apartment to the house. You probably drove it when you came to visit Jenny.”

“Oh. Where was my apartment?”