More Than Memories

by Kristen James

  He nudged her about the third ring. “Could be important.”

  “Alright, alright.” She didn’t hurry to pull herself away from him, and threw a glance back to see him watch her walk away. After her hello, she got a start when Bev answered back. “Bev?”

  “Yeah, your trip going good?”

  No, it wasn’t, but why would she talk to Bev about it? Bev didn’t give her the chance.

  “Well, hope you’re having a fun time running around with Trent because David’s not so good.”

  “Is he sick?” she asked while thinking you sick little brat.

  “Not sick, but tired of being second to you all the time.”

  Molly’s dread had been right on. Bev liked to mettle, didn’t she? And hurt people. “I’m not sure I’m the person you should be talking to.”

  “I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Especially since you caused all this.”

  “Heads up about what?” Molly kept her irritated sigh to herself and decided to play along. She surprised herself, impressed for slanting her thinking into detective mode like Trent would do. He’d see an opportunity here. With so many unanswered questions, she might as well listen to Bev and see if she will get anything out of it.

  “David lost a fiancé once. She drowned. And if that’s not enough for him to deal with, now you’re taking Alicia away from him. You think you have the right to walk back into town and pick up where you left off. But not after you caused everyone so much pain.”

  “I didn’t mean to,” Molly interjected, hurt and unable to hide it.

  “You don’t know that, do you? For all you know, maybe you took off laughing at everyone as you left. And we shouldn’t have to let you come back like nothing happened. David shouldn’t have to either. So he wants Alicia to choose. You and I both know she’ll pick you. I just wanted you to know what you’re doing to her.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Molly asked, irked, hot with anger.

  “Think Alicia’s going to?” Bev laughed. “She wouldn’t want you worrying over something else. Everyone thinks we have to protect you, like you deserve that.”

  “So once again, Bev, why did you call me down here to tell me? If Alicia needs to talk to me, she will.” Molly started to see Bev took extra pleasure in hurting her.

  “Why don’t you stay there? You’ll ruin David’s marriage if you come back.” Bev hung up on her.

  Ruin David’s marriage? Could Bev actually care and worry that much about him? Or did she just want Molly to stay in California and let Trent return alone?

  So now what could she do? She considered calling Alicia, asking if it were true about his dead fiancé and about him making Alicia choose.

  She heard Trent’s footsteps and realized he’d gone to the bathroom and maybe missed all of the conversation. She could always ask him about David’s fiancé.

  He came into the room with the words, “Was that important?” She shook her head and he went on, “I don’t want to rush things, but we need to find out what’s in those filing cabinets.”

  Since she wasn’t ready to tell him what she’d just learned, she nodded. Maybe they could discuss it downstairs while they searched through papers.

  “You can’t possibly think there’s another bomb shell waiting for us, do you?” she asked. If only he knew just how many bombshells had exploded that day. Her mind whizzed in too many directions, so she let it all go for the moment. For now, she let him take her hand and pull her towards the basement door.

  One glance at her face told Trent that Molly had something on her mind. Of course, there was a lot going on for them to think about. Apparently the shooting was bothering her still. He flicked the light on before going down the stairs first. He’d considered telling her the rest about them, maybe downstairs, but not if something else was bothering her. “Are you doing okay?”

  “I’m still shaky, but okay. You must have nerves of steel to keep your cool like that.”

  “I need it for my job.” He’d been through tough training, not just from his job, but from life. After losing Molly, there were times when he thought it wouldn’t be so bad if a bullet took him out. Then he would remind himself he might find her again.

  He went right to the file cabinet. “It’s locked.”

  Molly sighed, but Trent went to work on the lock with the tools he found by the basement door. She peeked in a few boxes while he worked, looking like she was thinking more than looking.

  “There.” He slid it open, but didn’t flip through the files. “Would you like to look first?”

  “I ought to, right?” She stepped closer and he rubbed her shoulders and back. This would be a great time to fill her in. “Thanks, I needed that. These are just financial and medical records, taxes, business papers. I wonder why they locked this.”

  “People tend to lock up their financials and health records. Are the files properly labeled?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked while she pulled out a paper from a file labeled 1985 taxes. “Yup.” She closed that drawer and opened another one, finding more years. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

  “Well, most cases aren’t solved in a day.” He stepped closer and quickly flipped through the files, then pointed to 1990, which looked twice as thick as the others. It appeared her parents kept excellent records so he guessed they’d find answers to at least one of their questions in there.

  “Aha.” She pulled it out and flipped it open on top of the cabinet. She pushed aside the year’s tax papers and found newspaper articles from Ridge City about their disappearance. “They did know about the havoc we left behind.” He held her arms still and read over her shoulder. After reading a couple of the articles she glanced at him with sadness in her eyes.

  “What’s behind those?” he pressed, wanting to see the white papers underneath. It’d be good for Molly to read the articles in depth to fill in the events four years ago, but he knew that story by heart. He held his breath as she picked up the article clippings to reveal a packet of official papers.

  Molly froze.

  Trent read the paper and wanted to grab it, but she knew already. How did her parents get those? He’d looked all over …. That didn’t matter now. Damnit, this answered a big question for Molly, but he should have told her. This wasn’t right.

  “Trent?” He heard both hurt and confusion in her voice which sounded close to tears.

  “Mol.” Somehow he’d need to explain, fast, because she couldn’t miss the big diamond ring taped to their marriage license. He stood behind her so he couldn’t see her face, her reaction, and probably her anger.

  Trying to tell her about their marriage went on the back burner when he realized she might truly be in danger. Since the day he saw her in Ridge City, he ached to confess how much he loved her, missed her, wanted to hold her forever and ever, and share everything: their love, eloping, and dreams for their future together. How do you tell that to someone who can’t remember you?

  Would she understand that?

  The silence grew.

  What could she be thinking?

  He’d hurt her in the worst way and vowed he’d never hold anything from her again. No more wimping out, waiting for the right moment, procrastinating. What had he been thinking? Alicia was right:spineless.

  He saw her hand shaking on the papers before she turned and looked at him through her tears. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  The quiet, slow way she asked seemed worse than an angry yell, but at least she was giving him a chance to explain.

  “I didn’t know how you’d react.” Speaking proved hard as he stared at her. “I’ve been scared to tell you, like it’d take the choice away from you. It’s been four years. I thought you might not want this anymore. I just couldn’t face that.”

  “We’re married.” The way she looked at him, he thought she was taking him in again, like it was the first time. “You’re my husband.”

  “Everything’s coming at you so fast. I wanted you to rememb
er slowly. But today, I realized someone might want to hurt you. I wanted to get to the bottom of this.” He waited, painfully, but she didn’t speak. “I was wrong. I knew it on the way down from Ridge City, knew I should have told you. That made it even harder.”

  “So when did you plan to tell me?”

  “When you remembered more.” That second it hit him. He’d been waiting for her to remember. If she remembered, maybe that meant she wanted it. However, his logic didn’t hold up for him now. “I thought maybe you would remember more of our relationship, remember that I proposed.”

  Her shock gave way to anger, and she paced the small floor. Trent expected her to turn at any minute and throw a punch into his face. He wanted her to. It’d make him feel better.

  “Everyone kept this from me?”

  “No.” He stepped closer, hoping she wouldn’t run out of the room with only half the story. “We were planning our wedding, and wanted to run off to Reno. So we did. We took a few days coming back, planning to surprise everyone, and we spent the first day home resting from the trip. We hadn’t slept much.” If the situation weren’t so serious, he’d probably blush as he remembered how they spent those few days together.

  “And?”

  “Then you were gone.” He felt his face drain of color. He tried to swallow before going on, but his throat was completely dry. Thinking about that day left him feeling like he couldn’t breathe. “You were going to run to your house and pick up a few things.”

  “I was gone, just gone?”

  “I called your house after a couple hours – no answer. Alicia hadn’t seen you in five days, since we’d been out of town. I ran by the store and around town on my way to your house and saw your car. Plus two police cars. People. Everyone whispering. When I arrived, everyone turned and stared at me. We looked everywhere. Called everywhere. No one saw anything.”

  As hard as it was to tell her this, he could see she had a hard time listening. Her breathing came in quick intakes.

  “I can’t do this.” Her voice rose to a shrill pitch while she threw up her hands. “The world’s coming at me like I’m a boxing bag. What gives?”

  “Mol.” He held his hand out to her. “I’ll do anything to help, to make this better.”

  She whirled mid step while pacing to stare at him. “This? Or everything? Look at my life, Trent.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I know you suffered, too. I know.” Tears clogged her eyes and emotion stuffed her throat. “We all did. But it just keeps going. I lost my parents before I knew them again. I find out I lost an entire life. Before I thought I didn’t have much, but I found you and Alicia.”

  Wasn’t that her happy ending? That she’d found them again?

  “Don’t be sad about all of it,” he pleaded, knowing they’d lost a lot but couldn’t get it back. “You found your life again. Seeing you again ... that’s all I need. Knowing you’re safe. Being with you.”

  “Safe.” She wiped at her face. “I am glad you’re here. It does make me feel a lot safer, but everything else feels so messed up. Bev called today.”

  “That was Bev?” The very name made his stomach churn. They did not need anything else to complicate this for them.

  “She said David wants Alicia to choose between him and me.”

  “That weasel, if he did.” Trent stopped, not believing that David would do that to his wife. Everyone needed friends outside of their spouse. “Bev could be making it up. I’d bet she is.”

  Molly paced again. “Did you know he was engaged before?”

  Trent looked a bit shocked and shook his head, wondering why this was connected to their present conversation, to their marriage license. He guessed the world really was crashing down on Molly, jumbling her mind. “I met him after he and Alicia started dating. So I suppose there are things about his life we wouldn’t know.”

  “So you don’t know that his fiancé died?” She told him what little information she’d gotten about it.

  “According to Bev?”

  “She’s his cousin, right?” Molly asked. He nodded but planned to call David about it and help Molly work this out. He wanted to help his sister and her husband as well. This must have caused some of their difficulties.

  “Things won’t stay like this.” He stepped closer. “Listen, Alicia won’t do this. She’ll make him understand. And I’m sure she knows if she turns her back on you, she’s turning her back on me, too.”

  “She’s your sister. I don’t want to be the cause of that.”

  “You aren’t. Bev and David are. I know we can work it all out. Everyone involved cares about each other. No one would want a division like that.” He suddenly wondered how Molly felt about Alicia being his sister and also how David and Bev were related. She’d come into Ridge City and walked into a complicated situation. The group of friends was partly based on family ties, and even if Molly had known that growing up, it was new to her this time.

  “I’ve caused a lot of problems. I know what’s going on with your job, how people blamed you for my family’s disappearance.”

  “That’s right, other people. A lot of other people are causing problems while we’re just trying to solve the case and get your memory back.” He stepped close enough to take her hand. “I care about what you think, just you.”

  “Trent, I could mess your whole life up. I have already.”

  “I get to decide that,” he said, steady. “We’re in it for the long haul whether or not you like it.”

  After a minute of simply looking at him, she pulled in a deep breath and started for the door. “I can’t ruin everything.”

  “Mol, no –”

  “I think I need to ... need to get some breathing room, think things through. I’m going up to my room.”

  He watched her leave and didn’t move. His vision went black and he had to grab hold of something to give him balance. Other people shouldn’t be able to whisper those old rumors, not with her back. Just like that day she’d first disappeared, he felt like he was falling uncontrollably into a great, black abyss. Like the most important part of his life was slipping away.

  So now she knew everything. Up in her room, Molly paced behind her shut door. She wanted to call someone, Karen or Alicia, but didn’t reach for her phone. If only her parents were alive so she could demand some answers. Tell them how angry she felt over everything. Tell them how she missed them.

  She fell backward onto the bed and covered her face. Well, she’d gone to Ridge City looking for answers. She found Trent. A few memories. And now she found out she was married.

  Yeah, she was mad he hadn’t told her, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about the actual fact that they were married.

  “Molly Avery Williams. Mrs. Williams.” She tried it out and felt excitement run through her. She wanted to remember eloping. No, she wanted to be mad at him. What right did he have not telling her something so consequential? Something that might have brought her memory back. He could have told her the day he stepped out into the police station lobby. He could have said, “Molly Anderson? I mean, Molly Williams? I’m your husband.”

  They’d driven all the way down here to discover something Trent could have simply told her.

  Yet, it didn’t. It didn’t bring her memory back. She wished she would have brought the ring upstairs with her so she could try it on. Seeing that it fit might make it feel more real – prove to her that she’d worn it before.

  She tried to picture it, hoping for a memory, and saw a movie of Trent looking for her, calling around. Just married, and missing his bride. What had he thought? And no one knew they were married. She saw why he chose not to tell people about their marriage after she disappeared.

  Molly didn’t like the feelings that came with that thought. It muddled things up.

  Bev’s call muddled things up. Molly caught a sob in her throat. She was losing everyone as quickly as she found them all again.

  Trent knocked on her door and, sighing, she got up an
d stood next to it. “I don’t think I want to talk right now, I just want to be by myself.”

  “I don’t want to be by myself.”

  “You don’t get to decide.” She folded her arms, shifting from foot to foot. The bubbling feelings inside her made her feel antsy.

  “I already lost you. I didn’t get to decide then. So I’m deciding now. I can’t lose you again.”

  Why was he doing this to her?

  “Mol, I need you. Just imagine if I told you when you came back. A complete stranger telling you we were married.”

  That day felt like a long time ago. He was right. The information would have made her suspicious. She cracked the door and walked back to her bed.

  He followed her and sat next to her. “I think about things too much and, for some reason, I always think the worst outcome is the only one.”

  “That’s why you didn’t tell me?”

  “I finally found you. No, you found me. You just walked back into my life.”

  Molly nodded, stared down at her folded hands while Trent sat nearby but didn’t dare touch her. When she felt calmer, she asked him, “Promise me something. Promise me you’re not holding anything else back. Is there anything else I don’t know?”

  “Mol.” He pulled her face up. “I was scared to tell you about getting married, but I promise I didn’t mean to lie to you.”

  She searched his eyes, felt herself believe him, but she didn’t know if she could be a good judge of character when she didn’t remember all the time she spent with him before. She’d trusted her parents and tried to rebuild her life and identity on the things they told her. Now she knew they were holding something back. Her parents had known about her marriage, though they never even chose to tell her about her engagement. They’d put the ring and the license away, along with her mother’s divorce papers. She covered her face, wishing she could push her thoughts away.

  Pulling her face up, she looked at his hand and asked, “What happened to your ring?”

  He closed his eyes a minute, then reached into his left pocket and pulled out a plain gold band. Slowly he slid it on his finger. “I was so scared that first day. We were so happy, then you left and disappeared. It looked like something really bad happened at the house. When I saw the police cars and everyone there, I put this in my pocket. Every night it goes on my nightstand, and every morning it goes back in my pocket.”