Page 4 of Their Darkest Needs

Wife. One word I could never get enough of. She must not know about me yet if the nurse still calls her that. She seems tired and there’s something like pity in her eyes too. “I also wanted to let you know that she suffers from amnesia due to the injuries she sustained to her head.

Amnesia, huh? “What do you mean?” I ask her, sounding a little bit too hopeful.

“She can’t remember anything past November 2019,” she tells me while sighing. I hold back the laugh that’s trying to overtake me.

“Are you telling me that she doesn’t remember anything that happened after that date?” She must think my question comes out of anger since she flinches away from me.

“We’re doing all we can to get her memory back, but until then I’d advise telling her stories of you together, but not to strain her mind too much, give her time.”

Oh, and time we will have as husband and wife. Whenever Felix asked me why I don’t just go to her and tell her how I feel instead of watching her from afar, I would tell him that I will once the time is right and the universe has given me a sign to do so. And what bigger sign would I need than this one right here?

“If you need some time to process it, we have a room where you can sit,” she says in a flirty tone. Is she kidding me right now?

“I’d rather sit with her until she wakes. I want to make sure she’s okay. She’s my wife after all.” I smile at her, making her blush slightly. It’s so easy to get the attention of this type ofwoman, but it’s not her attention or anyone else's I need but Taylor’s.

“I understand. She’s lucky to have a man like you. If I were her, I would never forget you,” she says, moving closer to me. I strain a smile and ignore her last comment, walking into Taylor's room.

The moment I see her lying there, my breath hitches. She’s sleeping like those Disney princesses, waiting for her prince charming to come and kiss her awake. I’m no prince, but to her, I would be something even better. Something more.

I brush a hair from her face and move the blanket higher so she doesn’t get cold.

It’s a whole different thing to see her so close and not from afar or through a screen. She’s even more breathtaking up close, not that I doubted it. Her beautiful, long, dark hair spreads across her pillow. I sit on the chair close to her bed and wait, never letting her out of my sight.

My head is foggy, and my eyes feel heavy. I try to open my eyes, but it's like gravity pulling them back down the moment I lift them. It takes a few times before I can keep them open and see the blur of what I think is a person sitting beside my bed.

“W—who are you?” I try to focus on what I’m seeing, but it’s so hard because I’m so tired.

“Get some more sleep, little doe, I'll keep watch for you,” a deep male voice says. His presence feels familiar somehow, but I can’t remember why. I close my eyes again, letting his voice lull me back into sleep.

Something is tugging at my arm, I sigh out of annoyance and open my eyes to see it’s that nurse—Kathy, I think—changing the tube that is connecting my arm to the IVs. “Sorry deary, did I wake you?” she asks with a kind smile.

“Y—yeah,” I sort of whisper. My voice isn’t coming through properly, and my throat still feels like it’s burning. But that might be from the crying too.

A pang of sadness hits me when I start to remember what happened yesterday. I’m still in the hospital, so I guess I didn't just make it all up. She can’t really be gone because if she is, I didn’t just lose my friend, but also my sister. I don’t know what I’ll do if she’s really gone.

My family never truly cared for me. All they did was complain about how much I cost them until they decided I had to buy my own food, and then it was the household bills, so I worked overtime to pay the rent, food, and electricity. You would think that after that, they wouldn’t complain anymore. But no, it was always something until I had no other choice but to drop out of school. I had to work hard, hide money, and get myself enrolled into a community college while working so I could get out of that shithole of a house and still make a life for myself –before I lost myself completely.

It was hard, and Mara was the only one who knew about all of that– who supported me and helped me through it all. Now if she’s gone, what the fuck am I going to do? Who am I going to go to for support? She is all I know. I don’t even have tears anymore; I think my eyes have dried out by now.

Trying to distract myself from the bad thoughts, I look at the empty chair next to me, feeling slightly disappointed seeing there is no one there. Did I imagine the man? Was that my so-called husband?

The nurse turns around, seeing me frown behind her. “Ah, looking for your husband? He just went to grab a coffee. He has been sitting here all night.”

I guess I didn’t imagine that either.

“So, who is he? What’s he like?” The nurse frowns at me and takes the chair I was looking at to sit down.

“You poor girl, he’ll be back soon, and then you two can talk. Maybe it can help refresh your memory.”None of this makes sense.

I’d sure as hell know if I was married.Right?

She opens her mouth to say something, but then the world's hottest guy walks into my room holding a cup of coffee.

He is tall, like really, really tall. His shoulders are broad; he clearly works out a lot. His hair is short on the sides and long on the top in a dark brown colour, almost black. He looks at me with the most beautiful, clear blue eyes and smiles.

“Ah, sleeping beauty has finally awoken,” he says with a smile. Maybe I could get into this marriage thing after all.

The nurse looks from him back at me. “Do you remember him now?” she asks, worry edged in her tone.

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