‘You ready? Callaway is coming up the lane now,’ Derik asked, tapping on the door.
‘Why the hell is he even going? He can’t even be in the room when they wake her,’ I complained, straightening my tie.
‘She’s his granddaughter. He wants to be there.’
‘Great. And we just have to arrive in a limo,’ I grumbled again as the car pulled to the front door to pick Derik and me up.”
“Derik was there when I woke?” I asked, interrupting.
“Yes, that was when I thought he was my friend,” Drew replied without stopping. “I felt like I was waiting for my first born, twisting my fingers, anticipating Morgan’s reaction when she saw me. What if she freaked out? What if she blurted the whole truth and disclosed our hidden past?
The remorseful feelings were asphyxiated quickly. Morgan gagged and choked as the tube was removed from her throat. That was the last stage of her being woken from her medically induced coma.
‘Maybe you should come a little closer. It might be good for her to see a familiar face when she wakes,’ Dr. Tharp coaxed, as he watched her confused expression.
Taking a step closer, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know how to play this role, nor did I know what Morgan was going to do when she woke. I wasn’t feeling sorry anymore, that’s for sure. Was she really going to play this card? I wasn’t buying it for a second.
‘I don’t know who this is,’ she assured the doctor, pulling her hand away from mine.
‘Morgan, it’s me. Drew. Your husband,’ I persuaded with raised eyebrows.
‘No, I don’t think that’s right,’ Morgan said with a look I’ll never forget. I thought for sure it was all a hoax. It was too dramatized. I just knew she was faking it.
Morgan groggily answered a few questions, asked what was wrong with her, and dozed in and out of consciousness.
‘Let’s let her rest,’ Dr. Tharp suggested. ‘She’s showing real progress and the activity in her brain is showing impressive results. I’m very optimistic about a full recovery.’
I relayed the information to Callaway, and he insisted on seeing her himself. She, of course, didn’t wake and continued her charade of not knowing who I was. I wasn’t buying it, and my new found repentance I’d gained over the past five weeks was replaced with anger. She was playing me for a fool.”
“I wasn’t, Drew,” I responded.
“I know, baby,” Drew smiled. “Morgan spent another week in ICU and was finally moved to her own room where I continued to visit her daily. She still played the amnesia act, pretending not to remember me or anyone else. The next three weeks were spent in rehab. Morgan had to practically learn to walk again. Her muscles needed to remember how to work again after being still for so long. Her broken pelvis caused a great deal of pain while she learned the—taken for granted—skill all over again.
I didn’t spend as much time there once she was in the rehabilitation center, stopping in every day or so. I had a business to run and to be truthful about the whole thing; I was having a hard time stomaching the whole contriving amnesia bullshit. Day after day after day, she insisted she didn’t remember me. She even asked questions about her childhood, her parents, our wedding. It was all a hoax. She was afraid of coming home with me. She knew. She knew exactly what was in store for her. If she didn’t, she’d soon find out.”
A cold chill ran clear up my spine, hearing Drew describe what he had planned for me once he got me back to the house.
Drew said, rubbing his eyes, “I remember Derik, trying to convince me that she wasn’t faking it.
‘I don’t know, man. I don’t think she’s faking it,’ Derik voiced his opinion while we tried to work up a proposal. I couldn’t focus. I was too worked up about picking her up, bringing her back here and resuming our roles as husband and wife.
“She’s faking it, Derik. I can tell. I saw her wipe away a tear the other night when she thought I was sleeping in the chair. What would she be crying over if she didn’t remember? I’ll tell you what. She knows she’s found. She knows she’s coming back here. She knows I’m going to teach her one hell of a lesson for the last two years,’ I angrily yelled at Derik.” Drew paused in his thoughts and turned to look at Deidra.
I shivered, hearing Drew’s vindictive tone. “I remember crying a lot, Drew. Not because of what I remembered at all. I cried for what I didn’t remember, not knowing who I was or where I was going.”
“You cried a lot?” Drew asked, turning to face me.