Page 97 of Love Notes & Lifelines
“Whatever. This is what she wants, what shecraves, and it’s what she deserves. Isn’t that right, my little slut?”
“I’ll warn you one last time. Do not speak about my wife that way.”
“Your wife? Your wife?” Silas laughs, and it sounds as unhinged as Danica’s. “Your wife owes me fifty thousand dollars. I paid for her mother to lose her memory in comfort. That makes me a hero, don’t you think?”
Leo enters the room while nurses crowd the door. He surveys the situation, then pulls Beck off my ex before he kills him.
“You didn’t,” I choke out, holding onto my neck with both hands like it’s leaking emotions. “You blackmailed me for information so I couldn’t show the world who you really were.”
Silas tsks, but otherwise ignores me. “You know,” he says to Beck. “You didn’t have to marry her. She’s a much better mistress. It’s what she’s good at—too stupid to ask the right questions. Isn’t that right, you dirty little?—”
“Beck, no,” I shout. But it’s too late. He flies across the room as though wings have sprouted from his back, and he lands a punch so hard the sound of bones cracking echoes in the room.
Silas crumples to the floor with blood streaming down his face and a disturbing grin that tells me it won’t end here.
My world is crashing and burning. Again. Instinct tells me to seek refuge in my mom’s embrace, but when I fall beside her bed, reality sets my hope on fire as she opens her glassy eyes—I’m truly on my own.
That’s when Lucía enters with two police officers. Where did she find them? Her eyes scan the room for less than a second before she points to Silas. “There he is.”
“Me?” Silas chuckles. “I’m the one who was assaulted.”
“Officers, my name is Becker Hayes.” He aggressively tugs on the hem of his shirt and runs a hand through his messy hair. “I came to visit my fiancée and her mother, and I found him assaulting her. I’d be shocked if she didn’t have bruises.”
I stare up at everyone in the room in horror. How did this spiral so quickly? Lucía holds her hands out to me and she helps me rise, but I wince when pain shoots through my shoulder and elbow.
She’s quick to lift the sleeve of my T-shirt where marks have already formed. “See,” she says pointing to my arms.
“That’s not what happened. Doesn’t anyone care that I’m bleeding?” Silas’s voice doesn’t sound as menacing as it did a few minutes ago.
The collective room says, “no,” without ever looking his way.
Everything moves in slow motion, as though we’re underwater, as the officers remove Silas and question everyone else.
I talked to them first, right after Beck insisted the doctor on-call examine me from head to toe, and now time holds no meaning as I stand here, alone, while my mother lies at my side. Her eyes are open, but the memories that make her my mom are gone today. She holds a smile on her face reserved for strangers, because today, that’s who I am to her.
She’s not there anymore. She loved you. This isn’t her fault.
“What’s wrong, dear?” The cruelty is that her voice sounds like my mom. She looks like my mom. But she’s not my mom—not to her anyway.
“Stella?”
I’m wound so tightly that when I jump in my seat every muscle in my body aches.
Beck’s scent envelopes me in an embrace, and then he gently places his hands on my shoulders, massaging and soothing the pain he has no part in.
“Can I sit?” he whispers.
My face is pinched when I turn my head to peer up at him. His expression is sad and full of pity.
“You’re a very handsome couple,” my mother says with shining eyes.
Beck nods in her direction. “Hello, Mrs. Anderson. It’s so nice to meet you.”
She stares at him with a plastic smile. She doesn’t recognize him, but she’ll pretend she does—it’s how this works now.
“It’s time for my walk,” she says, her smile dimming as thoughts slip away from her. Then she closes her eyes. She’s been doing this more and more when she can’t remember words.
“Now you know my secrets.” My voice sounds more like a scared little girl than my own.
