by Tia Siren
CHAPTER 14
KATE
I always hated the hospital. Or at least, I got the feeling that I had. It was a depressing and oppressing atmosphere for anyone that had to step through its doors. It began with the cold, isolating color that all hospitals featured: white. White walls, white floors, and white ceilings. It seemed to be a metaphor for the death found throughout the building.
And that was the second reason I hated hospitals. Death and decay hung around the place. They could be felt in every room and every hallway. It could be sensed in the way the people in the hospitals talked and acted. It seemed to latch onto them and suck the good feelings right from their souls.
There was nothing enjoyable about the hospital. I hated it here, and thus, I was not happy about the fact that I was meeting Liam in one. If it wasn't for the fact that it was Liam, I would have waited outside in the parking garage. I would have called and demanded that he come outside to meet me as there was no way that I was going inside.
But it was Liam, and I felt the odd urge to please him. Even if it meant braving one of the places I hated the most.
But more frustrating than that, now that I was in the hospital, I was having the hardest time finding him. When I entered the building, I headed straight for reception, asking him to be called. But they couldn't get through to him and suggested that I might do better to walk around. I'd most likely bump into him that way. With a little reservation, I opted to do just that, wishing immediately that I hadn't.
Ten minutes in and I was all but ready to turn around and leave. He could come and find me. But then I spotted Sandra, the nurse. Sandra had helped look after me the few days that I was in the hospital, and she had always seemed really nice. Especially considering how some of the other nurses acted.
"Sandra, hey!" I called out to her as I hurried down the hallway.
Hearing her name, she stopped and turned, beaming when she spotted me. "Kate, how are you?" She powered toward me, pulling me into a hug. I was surprised by this but found it oddly welcoming. It did much to distract me from my current location.
"I'm okay. Just looking for Dr. Morgan. Liam. You haven't seen him, have you?"
"No, not at all today I'm afraid," she responded, biting her lip.
It was odd, but in that moment, I suddenly noticed how attractive Sandra was. She had beautiful red hair and the most stunning white porcelain skin. She also had a body in stark contrast to mine, curvy in all the right places. It was stupid, but for a moment, I actually felt a slight stab of jealousy at the thought that she got to spend all day with Liam.
"That's fine," I said, pushing those silly thoughts away. "But if you do see him can you let him know that—"
"Hey. Now that you are here, though, I've got something to show you. Well, not show you, but, well, he's been asking for you all morning."
"Who?" I asked, having no idea what the hell she was talking about.
"Danny. Your friend."
"My what now?" I asked again, getting a little miffed that she was being so coy. I did have amnesia after all.
"Oh my god!" she screamed, slapping me on the arm. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot that you wouldn't remember. Danny was the man driving the car that you crashed in. He's awake, and he's been asking for you."
"Oh," I didn’t know what else to say. I was caught between both excitement and nervousness. On the one hand, there was a chance that this guy could tell me more about myself and what I was doing with him in the car. On the other hand, though, that might not be the information that I wanted to hear.
But before I had a chance to object, Sandra took me by the hand and led me toward the ICU. In the end, I decided that it was actually a good thing. I was going to have to face him eventually. It might as well be now.
He looked about the same as when I had seen him the first time. Although he had fewer bandages on, his skin was still swollen and purple. Both his arms were also broken, as was one of his legs. But his eyes popped open with excitement when he saw me coming, and he even smiled, despite the difficulty it looked like it was causing him.
"Hey, sweet cheeks," he said as I walked to his bedside. "You look good. Well, better than me, anyway."
"Hey," I said nervously. The moment that I was by his side, Sandra left the two of us alone. It was an act that I was grateful for. I had no idea how this conversation was going to play out, and I really didn't need the audience.
"That's all you have for me? No, how are you? Or how you feeling?" He joked. As he did though, he began coughing violently. It clearly hurt.
"I don't know what else to say,” I answered. “I don't even know who you are."
"Ah yeah, the amnesia," he said. "That's a big one. Well here, let me help you out. My name is Danny Diamond, and the two of us are dating. How's that sound?"
"Dating?" Honestly, that sounded awful. When he told me his name, I internally prayed that he was just an Uber driver giving me a lift. His name seemed to speak volumes about the kind of guy that he was. But now that he confirmed that we were dating, I felt sick.
"How did you get so lucky?" he joked again. “I know, right?” His words resulted in another fit of coughing.
"Dating?" I managed, trying not to let the disappointment come through in my voice. "How long have we been—"
"Well, we're not dating, per se. Just lovers. Regular, run of the mill lovers. Oh, and you work for me, too."
"I do? Doing what?"
"Jesus, that memory really has gone to shit. You're one of my waitresses at the club. But recently, you came to me, asking for more lucrative opportunities. I run a little escort business on the side. You wanted to be a part of that. You called it, trading up."
That sick feeling in my stomach was only getting worse. With every word he spoke, I felt my stomach dropping out from under me. Not only was I sleeping with this man, but I was looking to get more money from him by working as an escort? It was disgusting. I was basically a whore. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. How could this have been me? How could this have been my old life? Even with my memories gone, I felt sure that I would never do something like that. But I couldn’t deny what this man was telling me, could I?
"And I asked you to do that?” I asked, again trying to keep the bile from coming off my tongue.
"Are you kidding? You practically begged me. You got down on your knees and everything. I was taking you to your first job when we got into that accident. And we were discussing some other business ventures. But listen. I do feel I should say sorry for what happened. It wasn't my intention. If it makes you feel any better though, I'm pissing into a tube right now. So, I think I got the short end of the stick."
"What other business ventures?" I asked. I ignored his other comments about us being even. It was because of him that I had no memory. I didn't give a fig if he had to piss into a tube. Let him.
"It's about my... is this really the place?" he asked, his eyes darting around the busy room. The place was packed, but no one was paying us any attention. And besides, I wanted to hear what he had to say. I needed to hear.
"Speak."
"Fine. Look, you've been to your place, haven't you? You probably wonder how you been affording such a luxurious spot. Well, it wasn't on just your waitress salary and tips, believe me. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’ve been paying your rent the last few months. But now I need the money back. Well, actually, last month I needed the money back. But now considering everything that—"
"Kate! What are you doing?"
At the sound of my name, I spun around to see Liam rushing toward me. He looked terrified at the sight of me. As if he could not believe that I was there.
"Oh great, Doc!" Danny said when he spotted him. "It's about time you got her down here."
"What do you mean got me down here?" I asked, not sure what Danny was talking about.
"Don't worry about that, Kate,” Liam said. “Let's get out of here so we can—"
"I've been asking to see you for hours,” Danny
interjected. “They said you were on your way, but you never came. Honestly, I was surprised when you did turn up."
One look at the guilty expression on Liam's face confirmed this sentiment. "How long has he been awake for?" I asked, trying to control the temper that was slowly boiling inside of me.
"Not that long," he said.
"How long!" I screamed. I hadn't meant to scream so loudly, but for some reason, I was suddenly furious.
"All morning," he relented, letting off a sigh. "That was the reason that I left your place this morning. To come and see him."
"Her place?" Danny asked. "What the hell were you doing at her place?"
"And why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my voice trembling as I ignored Danny. I didn't care about Danny or the fact that we were lovers and I had just been revealed as cheating on him. All I cared about was Liam and why he had lied to me.
"Because I didn't want you to get too excited–listen will you?" He cut in before I had a chance to interject. "Amnesia is a very complex problem. If we offload too much information on you at once, then there is no telling what might happen, or how you might react. I wanted to come in here and see what he had to say before I let you talk to him."
"Yeah, like find out how to steal my girl," Danny said angrily.
Again, I ignored Danny. He was a rodent as far as I was concerned. My biggest concern was with Liam, who had been and was still lying to me. It was obvious from his body language and the way that he refused to meet my eyes that I wasn't getting the full story.
"That it?" I asked calmly. "That's the whole truth?"
"All of it," he confirmed, looking relieved at the thought that I was believing his lie. Of course, I wasn’t though. Not by a long shot. "Now, how about we go get some lunch and–hey! Where are you going?"
I didn't let him finish, and I certainly wasn't going to be having lunch with him. All lunch would do is give him a chance to double down on the lie and leave me more confused than ever. I had so many things to be mad about that I didn't know where to start.
First, the man that was the only link I had to my past turned out to be a total douche bag. From what he said, he had all but pimped me out. Apparently, I owed him money, and I thought the only way to pay him back was to whore myself like some gutter trash. The only reason I hadn’t gone through with it was the car crash. Thank god, for that.
And he claimed we were dating, but obviously, he only wanted to use me as a means to make cash. It made me feel dirty and confirmed the suspicions that I had about my life before the amnesia.
And then there was Liam. He was my ticket out of that crappy life. He was my light at the end of the tunnel. But now it seemed that he was just as bad. He was lying to me, and I didn't know why. But it didn't even matter really. A lie was a lie, and if he couldn't be trusted, then who could be? I wanted to believe him, but I didn't know if I should. For all I knew, he and Danny were working together, and I was being played for a fool.
I stormed from the cold, isolating enclosure of the hospital, my face running red and my blood boiling. Like when I had woken up a few days ago, I was totally alone. And like that time, I didn't see any way out of it.
CHAPTER 15
LIAM
It took me several moments to comprehend the fact that I needed to go after her. Once she was done yelling at me and had stormed off, I was able to process what had just happened. Well, not the overall picture, but the finer points. Including the one that mattered.
There was actually only one point that did matter, and that was that Kate was mad at me.
She wasn't just mad at me either, but furious. I had never seen her so angry. Not since the first time we were dating, and I told her that we should break up. But that was a year ago and that was a different Kate. In the context of our new relationship, I had never seen her as angry as just then.
I could have left her to cool off, but I figured that would only make things worse. If she had time to process everything and really think about what I had done, then there was no telling what she might come up with or what might come back to her. The problem with dealing with an amnesia patient was that one never knew what was going on in their mind. I had to act fast and try to stop the bleeding before it got out of control.
I just had no idea what I was going to say. Everything seemed to be working against me. Not only did she now know that she and Danny were dating, but she knew that I knew that. She also knew that I was aware of him being awake and opted to not tell her. Although in my head, the reason for that was perfectly justifiable, to her, it might not seem that way.
As it took me a little longer than I would have liked to react to her leaving, I didn't manage to catch her until she was already several blocks from the hospital. Even then, as I called her name, she refused to slow down or even acknowledge that she heard me.
Reaching her, I grabbed her arm, only for her to pull it from my grip and keep walking. Sighing to myself, and ensuring that I didn't let my temper get away from me, I ran forward, jumping in front of her and cutting her off entirely.
"Hey, what the hell?" I said, instantly regretting that I did. Maybe I should have been a little softer.
"Oh, that's nice," she spat back. "Great apology." And she sidestepped me, powering down the sidewalk.
"Hey come on! I was–I'm sorry." I caught with to her. I was going to grab her by the arm again, but luckily, she stopped on her own accord, turning on me.
"Do you even know why you are sorry?" she asked.
"Yeah. Because I lied to you. I should have told you he was awake."
"That's a start. But barely even scratches the surface." She seethed with her hands on her hips.
The problem was that I had no idea why she was angry. I thought I did. I thought it was because I had lied to her. But as she stared daggers at me, I slowly came to the conclusion that there was more to it than that.
"Ah," I began, with no idea where I was going to go from there.
"You lied to me about lying," she fumed. "And then you knew about me and Danny, and you lied about that, too. Basically, everything you have told me about Danny is a lie, and I want to know why. Now."
Hands on her hips, she continued to stare at me. I could feel the heat coming off of her. And as much as I would have loved to have told her everything, I couldn't. It was too complicated. To tell her the real reason why I never told her about Danny would have been to admit everything. I would have had to tell her that I didn't want her to get her memory back, and then I'd have to tell her why. I couldn't do that yet. I wasn't ready.
"Kate, listen. I wanted to tell you but..."
"But what?"
"He's not a good guy Kate. Not even a little bit. You deserve better than that. I didn't want him to hurt you." I saw on her face that it was too late for those sorts of platitudes.
"Forget it. You just don't get it." She threw her hands in the air and stormed away. This time though, I didn't chase her. There was no point. Instead, I let her go, wondering if I would ever see her again and knowing that if I did, she probably wouldn't want anything to do with me.
--
Danny hadn't moved since I left him. That was more on account of the fact that he couldn't move. But still, it served my purpose nicely.
The ICU was empty as it tended to be at that time in the afternoon. A lot of the doctors were in the middle of a shift change, as were the nurses. What that meant was that I had a few minutes alone with Danny. Those few minutes were going to be used to get the answers that I needed to win Kate back over.
"Okay, you're going to tell me everything," I said as I pulled up a seat beside Danny. "Understand? How you know Kate, what your relationship is, and what you hope it to be. If you lie to me, or I think you're lying to me, I'm going to turn this little switch here–it’s the morphine. I will shut it off and walk away."
"What?" he asked, looking from me to my hand, which was placed firmly on the morphine drip.
"There is nothing wrong with your hearing. So,
I'm going to assume that you heard me just fine, and your response was a result of shock more than anything."
"Look, I barely know the broad. You want her, you can have her."
Hearing him call her a broad actually made me want to turn the drip off straight away. But I relented. I needed information first.
"How do you know her?" I asked calmly.
"She works for me," he rushed. "That much is true. At my strip club. Diamond Dolls.”
“She’s a stripper?” I asked, feeling hot jealousy surge through me.
“Nah,” Danny said. “Just a waitress. She doesn’t show her tits or nothing. Damn shame, really. That’s why I was trying to get her to work for my side business.”
“What fucking side business?” I asked.
“I run a little escort business. Mostly, it’s dancers from the club, but I thought, shit, a knockout like Kate? She’d rake in a ton of cash for me. And I could definitely use the extra income.”
I looked at him with narrow eyes. He was an even bigger piece of shit than I thought he was at first. “All right, Danny, I need you to slow down. So you and Kate aren’t dating?”
He snorted. “Nah, I just told you that because it seemed easier than the truth. Plus, I mean, I heard about the amnesia thing. I thought maybe if that’s the story I told her, she might let me hit that shit.”
My fist clenched around the morphine button, itching to turn it off and let this son of a bitch suffer. But I still needed info from him, and he wouldn’t be able to speak at all without the painkiller.
As sleazy as this asshole was, I was relieved to know Kate had never been with him. I would never have believed she could stoop so low as to share a bed with a guy like this.
“Okay,” I said. “So did Kate come to you, asking for the escort job? Because that doesn’t sound like her.”
He shrugged as best as he could with two arms in casts. “She didn’t ask me. I asked her. I’d been asking her for a few months, but she kept telling me to drop dead.”