Memory's Edge: Part One (27 page)

Chapter Fifty-One

The Last Whole Piece

“John.
Gretchen. You’ll be going on in about ten minutes,” the page said. “If you
would both follow me, I’ll take you to the set.”

Gretchen took
John’s hand and they left the green room. Even Gretchen looked a little nervous
by that point. John wanted to sprint down the hall and escape. The death grip
Gretchen had on his hand kept him from getting too far ahead of her. He wasn't
sure whether she was holding him so tightly because of her own nerves or
because she was afraid he would run, but John appreciated it either way.

“Okay,” the
page said, “you two wait right here. Someone will come get you as soon as
they’re ready to seat you on set. Good luck.”

“Thanks,”
Gretchen said.

Turning to
look at John, Gretchen hugged him. She was trembling despite her smile. “I
can’t stop shaking,” she said. “I’m so nervous. I don’t think it hit me until
we got here just how many people will be watching us. If I goof this up my
students will never let me live it down.”

“You’ll be
fine,” John said. He wished she would stop bringing up just how many people
would be watching them. He didn’t mind speaking in front of people and he
wasn’t worried about answering the host’s questions. All of that felt oddly
natural to him. He could stand in front of all of America and not care at all.
It was just one person he was worried about.

Where was
his dark haired memory woman? Even if she never wanted to see John again for some
reason, would she be watching? Would she recognize him? John hadn’t taken the
time to investigate any religions yet, but he prayed as they walked. He prayed
whoever the woman he kept seeing was, she wouldn’t see him today.
Be out
hiking or boating
, he pleaded. Anything that kept her away from a TV.

“John and
Gretchen?” a man asked. They both nodded. “Great, I’m Howie. Let’s get you two
into position for the interview.”

They
followed him to a set containing a loveseat and a single overstuffed chair. He
positioned Gretchen and John on the loveseat so John was facing the other chair
directly and Gretchen was between them. Two other crew members came up to them
to touch up their makeup and brush their clothes free of any lint. The lights
above came on and the two aides scampered off the stage.

Anne
LaSalle, with a trail of people behind her, approached the set. She shook their
hands as her crew fussed over her. She ignored the crew completely, and said,
“How are you both doing this morning?”

“Fine,”
they both said.

“Nervous?”
she asked.

“Very,”
Gretchen admitted.

“Don’t
worry, this will be painless,” Anne said. “I’ll ask Gretchen first to tell me
about how she found you, and then I’ll ask John about waking up with no memory.
After that we’ll talk about how Gretchen took you in and you two ultimately
fell in love. It will be over before you know it.”

I hope
so
, John thought.

***

“Tell me
what’s happening,” Corey begged Sarah as she hurried the kids out of the taxi.

Her kids
sprinted ahead of her to the lobby, yelling, “We’re going to see Daddy!”

“Okay, they
just started the interview,” Sarah said. “The woman he’s with is named Gretchen
Gesner. Apparently she found Alex in the middle of the road in New Mexico.”

“New
Mexico? How did Alex end up in New Mexico? We live in Chicago,” Corey said. New
Mexico? It had to be him. It had to be.

“He’d been
attacked or something so they took him to the hospital,” Sarah said.

Corey
finally caught up to the kids just as they tried to duck under a security
checkpoint. “Just a minute, Sarah, I have to go through a metal detector.” She
tossed the still live phone into the bin with her keys and purse and
impatiently waited to make it through the security check. Someone asked her
what she was doing at the studio and whatever answer Corey gave the man
prompted him to pin “Visitor” badges on her and the kids. Corey snatched her
belongings back as soon as she saw them and headed in the direction the guard
had pointed her in.

“Okay,
Sarah, what’s happening now?” she asked desperately.

“Alex was
in a coma for a week before he woke up,” she said.

“And?”
Corey demanded. “Why didn’t he come home after he woke up?”

Sarah
hesitated. “He couldn’t remember anything, Corey. He woke up with full amnesia
of everything that happened before he got attacked. He says he still can’t
remember anything.”

“What?”
Corey cried. The kids kept yanking her down a hall, or she didn’t think she
would have been able to walk on her own.

Everyone
told Corey that Alex just took the cash and ran off with someone, that he must
have been tired of her and the kids and bailed, but she never believed him
capable of such a thing. Alex loved them. He would never have abandoned his
family. Corey guessed forgetting who he was would be a great reason for not coming
home, but she still didn’t know why he had left in the first place.

“After he
woke up, the doctors released him, and the woman, Gretchen, took Alex in and
let him live with her,” Sarah said. A crash of emotions swept through her. Alex
had been living with another woman this whole time?
At least he had someone
,
she told herself. What if he had just been turned out onto the street?

“You’re
going to love this, Corey, Alex learned how to cook and started a catering
business,” Sarah said.

“A chef?”
She could
not
believe that. Alex had grown up with money and still had
money. A lot of it. He had never so much as boiled water as far as Corey knew.
How in the world had he become a chef? Running his own business, though, that
sounded exactly like Alex. Ever since he disappeared, his brother and Corey had
been trying to take his place managing the four car dealerships she and Alex
owned.

“Excuse me,
ma’am, this is a restricted area,” a security guard said as he held out a hand
to stop Corey.

“Just a
minute, Sarah,” she said. Turning to the security guard, she tried to explain
but the kids beat her to it.

“We’re here
to see daddy!” they yelled as they bounced up and down.

“Does your
husband work here?” the guard asked.

“No, but he’s
here. He’s on the Today show right now. I have to find him. It’s an emergency!”
she said. Desperation brought tears to her eyes. She couldn’t let Alex
disappear again. This might be her only chance to see him, to make sure. He was
so close.

“Well, if
you wait here, your husband will be out as soon as he’s done. I can’t let you
just wander around the studio,” he said.

“But my
husband doesn’t know I’m here,” Corey said. “He doesn’t even know who I am.
Please. I have to find him. Please.” Tears started falling and Michael and
Sasha quieted down as they saw their mother cry.

“What do
you mean your husband doesn’t know who you are?” the guard asked.

He thought
she was crazy. Corey knew she was seconds away from being escorted out of the
building. “On the show today, there’s a man who was in an accident and ended up
with amnesia. Have you heard about him?” she asked.

“I don’t
know what goes on in the studio every day, miss. I just keep people out that
don’t belong in there.” He reached for his radio and Corey panicked.

“Please,”
she shouted. “The man, he’s my husband. He disappeared a year ago. I’ve been
looking for him this whole time. If he leaves before I can see him, I may never
find him again. Please, you have to help me.”

“Mommy,”
Michael whispered, “are we going to see Daddy?”

She looked
up at the security guard. He held the answer.

“Just a
minute,” he said. Reaching up to his radio, Corey prayed he wasn't calling for
someone to drag her away. Instead, he asked if there was a guest on the show that
day with amnesia. The voice that crackled over the radio said there was. Hope
sprang up in Corey’s heart and her eyes begged the guard to trust her.

Shaking his
head, he spoke into the radio again. “There’s a woman out here who says she’s
the guy’s wife. She wants to see him.”

There was a
brief moment of silence before the other voice answered. “I’ll send someone
down for her.”

A young man
arrived a few seconds later and hurried Corey and the kids through the
building.

“We need to
hurry. They’re already halfway through the interview,” the man said. “Do you
have a picture or some identification that proves this guy is your husband?”

“Yes, I
do!” Digging through her purse, Corey pulled out her wallet and tore out her
driver’s license to prove who she was, and a family picture that included Alex.
It had been taken a few months before he disappeared.

The man
leading them took the license and picture. Holding up the license, he looked
back at Corey and nodded, then held up the photo she had given him and compared
it to one he had brought with him. Corey stared at the newer picture over his
shoulder. It was Alex. He looked a little different. There were scars he didn’t
have before, which almost made her start crying again to see them, and his face
was fuller than it had been a year ago, but it was him.

Remembering
Sarah, Corey pulled her phone back out and asked if she was still there. “Yeah,
I’m here,” Sarah said. The tone of her voice caught Corey’s attention.
Something was wrong.

“What is
it, Sarah?”

The man
leading them suddenly stopped and stepped aside, revealing Alex sitting on the
couch next to the woman who had rescued him. Corey’s joy at seeing him almost
completely blocked out everything else. Almost. The woman next to him was
holding his hand. She was looking over at him the way Corey used to look at
Alex. She was in love with him. In between questions, he looked over at her.
The way he looked at her said it all. He loved her, too.

“Corey,”
Sarah said, “Alex and the woman, they’re engaged.”

The last
whole piece of Corey’s heart crumbled away. Michael yanked on her hand and said
something she didn’t hear, but his voice drew Alex’s attention.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Unexpected Guests

Anne asked
John something, but a flurry of movement behind the camera caught the corner of
his eye. He glanced over at the small boy waving at him. He looked…familiar. He
was holding someone’s hand. Traveling up the hand that held him, John saw her.
Her dark waves rippled around her crestfallen face. Their eyes met and tears
spilled down her cheeks.

Everything
started falling into place and John felt himself smile. “Corey,” he whispered.

Falling to
her knees, she let go of the children’s hands and they ran forward.

“Daddy!
Daddy! Daddy!”

John slid
off the couch and dropped to his knees as they reached him. They clambered up
the steps, burying John in an avalanche of hugs and kisses. “Daddy, we missed
you,” Michael cried. “We didn’t know where you were!”

Sasha hung
around his neck, kissing John wherever she could reach him. “
Lub
you, Daddy!” she said between kisses. John cried. She
was talking and walking. He had missed it all. Looking up, he saw Corey walking
shakily toward them. She wasn't looking at him, though, she was looking past
him. At Gretchen.

Spinning
around, John stared at Gretchen. Her hands were shaking even as she pressed
them against her mouth in disbelief. There was pain in her eyes, but there was
joy, too. She knew. Gretchen looked up over John’s shoulder and he turned to
see Corey standing to the side. She looked so unsure. Standing up with Michael
and Sasha still hanging off of him in different places, he reached out to her.

Corey
started crying uncontrollably as she pressed herself against him. It wasn't
until John saw his tears falling on her shoulder that he realized he was doing
the same thing. “Do you know who I am, Alex?” Corey asked between sobs.

Alex. That
was his real name. Alex Turner.

Pulling
back, he looked into her eyes, the ones he had seen so many times without
knowing who they belonged to. The love he had seen in the memories was still
there, maybe even brighter than before. “I knew as soon as I saw you,” he
whispered.

“Where did
you go?” she asked. “How did you end up in New Mexico?”

John’s
memories were reemerging, but it was like someone had just dumped them into his
head. They were jumbled and fuzzy, but he thought most of them were there. “The
painting,” he said, piecing together the days before everything disappeared.
“The painting we saw at the charity benefit, the one you loved so much.”

Corey shook
her head in confusion.

“I found
the painter,” John said. His head felt light despite the years’ worth of
memories weighing on his mind. Having them back made him giddy. “The painter
lived in New Mexico and I commissioned him to do a painting for you.”

“But, Alex,
why didn’t you tell me where you were going?” Corey asked. “You took out ten
thousand dollars and just disappeared. We searched the whole state, the
neighboring states, but we couldn’t find you.”

All those
months of being angry that no one had ever found him, and it was his fault.

“I had the
painting done for your birthday, but I didn’t want you to find out about it, so
I took out the cash, because I knew how closely you kept track of money, and
drove to an airport outside of town to fly to New Mexico. The artist lived in
some little town in the middle of nowhere. I was going to pick up the
painting,” John said. “I wanted to pick it up myself because I didn’t want it
showing up at the house and you seeing it. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“What
happened?” Gretchen asked quietly. “How did you end up lying in the middle of
the road?”

He looked
over at Gretchen and felt crushed all over again. She stood there so quietly.
Determined to be gracious, she was standing with hands clenching each other so
tightly her fingers were white. John could tell she was dying to scream or cry,
anything to show how she felt, but she also had been the one who wanted so
badly to find out who John was. The bittersweet reality of it finally happening
was plain on her face.

“I picked
up the painting, but I got lost when I tried to head back to Albuquerque and
couldn’t get any cell reception. I guess I turned the wrong way and ended up
heading north instead,” John said. “I got a flat tire and the wrong group of
people stopped to help me.”

Memories of
the hulking men walking up to John sent a shiver down his spine. The leader
asked if John needed help, and John pretended he was fine even though he had
never changed a tire in his life. One of them picked up the tire iron from the
ground, but instead of putting it to work on the tire, he turned it on John.
Phantom pain shot through his shoulder as he remembered the first blow landing.

John fell right
away, but they didn’t stop. Shielding his head only ended with the blow
smashing into his forearm. They moved onto his legs and body after that. John
could feel his leg snapping as the tire iron hit it. He managed to block out
most of the other kicks and hits by slipping into near unconsciousness.

Vaguely, he
remembered someone taking his wallet and keys, and driving off. He still wasn’t
sure whether someone had been changing the tire as the beat him up, or if he
was just lying on the ground in pain for a lot longer than he thought, but
either way, John knew they were leaving him for dead.

Until
Gretchen found him.

“Excuse
me,” Anne said with an amused expression on her face. “Would you all like to
sit down and fill me in on what’s happening here?”

John turned
around and realized that while they were all talking, the petite loveseat had
been switched out for a full sized couch. Scooping Michael and Sasha up into
his arms, he carried them toward the couch and sat down dead center. He chose
the spot on purpose and watched Gretchen and Corey both sit on opposite sides
of him. Gretchen put a comforting hand on his thigh as Corey touched his
shoulder hesitantly.  

“John, or
Alex, apparently, would you like to introduce us to our unexpected guests?”
Anne asked.

Hugging his
squirming children tightly, John turned them to face Anne. “These two rascals
are Michael and Sasha.” His voice caught as Sasha planted a slobbery kiss on
his cheek. “These are my children.”

“We missed
Daddy,” Michael said. “He was hiding and we didn’t know where he went, but now
we found him.”

“Daddy!”
Sasha yelled as she threw up her hands.

Anne smiled
at them and looked over at Corey.

John took a
deep breath and met Corey’s eyes. “And this is Corey Turner, my wife.”