The brightness blinded me.
And then… darkness.
“It, um, it was headlights. I was crossing the street, and they flicked on, shined right into my eyes.”
The doctor nods, looking to Mason when he speaks.
“Just like that night.” He frowns, looking to the doctor. “It’s almost the same. She was crossing the street, and then the truck came. She looked, but” —he swallows— “it was too late.”
My heartbeat spikes slightly, and I wince as I attempt to drag in a full breath.
Dr. Brian, folds his clipboard in front of him, tipping his head slightly. “Arianna, did something happen that night? The night you do remember?”
Panic washes over me, and while I’m not sure if it shows, the monitors I’m hooked up to give me away.
Mason’s posture stiffens, and Cameron’s palm finds my upper arm, afraid I’m going to have another panic attack.
“Hey, hey, calm down,” Mase rushes out, and when I look into my brother’s eyes, finding his soft ones on mine, I take a breath. “I already know,” he says quietly.
Nodding, I hold his gaze. “You do?”
“Yeah, sister, I know about you and Chase. Maybe not every little thing, probably not every little thing, but I do know the big stuff. I know…” He looks to the doctor briefly, swallowing hard as he brings his attention back to me. “I know he hurt you, maybe even… broke your heart.” His brows pull into a frown.
The urge to cry out creeps over me, so I squash my lips to the side, because his tone, it’s telling, as is the sorrow in his eyes.
“Mase…”
He understands, shaking his head as he hangs it.
Chase hurt me, broke my heart, and this is Mason’s way of telling me his best friend didn’t put the pieces back together.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I nod again, salty tears falling into the corners of my mouth.
“Arianna,” the doctor eases. “Is that the way you remember that night?”
Nodding, I force myself to look at him. “Yeah. It was a rough day.” To put it lightly.
He nods, flipping a few pages and reading over something in my file. He closes it and faces me once more.
“Oftentimes, in amnesia cases like this, the brain will link trauma to trauma, and I believe that is what we are dealing with here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s sort of as I explained to you about why we had to place you in a coma. Your injuries caused you a great deal of pain, and your brain was at risk of shutting down because of it. What we are facing now is the same idea but related to memory instead. You experienced trauma, and your brain connected it to past trauma, erasing the time in-between.”
My throat runs dry, my legs prickling. “I don’t think I’m following. What trauma? New trauma?”
What could have possibly happened to me that ached like that night did?
Was it about the baby?
Had I already lost it?
My sniffles grow choppier, and it doesn’t take long before my chest is sputtering, the movement creating an ache through my entire upper body, reminding me of my wounds on the outside, but it’s nothing compared to the pain within.
I was going to be a mom, something I’ve always dreamed of, but imagined would happen later in life. It was the only thing I was certain of, the one thing I wanted more than anything else, and I can’t even remember if I knew about the little blessing before I lost him.
A good mother would remember that no matter what.
Wouldn’t she?
Dr. Brian says something, but I have no idea what and then he walks out.
My eyes close.
I was told I was only seven weeks pregnant, not far along enough to know the sex… and not far along enough to have gotten pregnant over the summer.
That means Chase wasn’t the father, that’s what my brother shared.
Unless we found each other again and nobody knew it?
He would have come to me when I cried, held me and cried with me if that were true, wouldn’t he have?
My body racks with silent sobs, and when I force my eyes open, my brother’s find mine.
He hesitates a moment, and I curl my toes in my socks, anxious. “Ari—”
He’s cut off when there’s a soft rap against the wall.
All our heads snap toward the door, and my stomach drops at the sight.
Broken blue eyes flash in my mind, and my hand twitches, remembering the feel of the one that held mine the day my eyes opened in this room.
Juliet, open your eyes…
My brows cave as I look him over.