Before she can answer, a doctor walks in. We step back as he checks Chanel over, then he asks us to leave. She tracks me as I go but asks Brody to stay. So I wait outside her room. Glancing back in, I see her eyes wander to the door, watching me.
The doctor eventually leaves and Brody follows, stopping in front of me. He bites his lip and looks down. “Seems she has some memory loss. They say it’s temporary, and they hope her memory will come back, but they don’t know when.” He looks back into the room. “I’m her brother, so she knows me. She remembers our parents. But there’s nothing other than that, not even Merci.”
“Her fiancé?” I ask.
“She isn’t engaged,” he replies, his face is scrunched with confusion.
I go back into the room and sit in the chair as Chanel watches me.
“How do we know each other?” she asks, looking me over.
Brody coughs from the door, but I ignore him as I answer, “You came into my bar and told me not to hire your brother. That is how we met.”
A small but incredibly faint smile pulls on her lips. “I’m quite protective over him.”
“That you are.” I nod, agreeing.
“And we became… friends?” she asks. Her eyes move to Brody in the doorway, who’s looking down at his feet but listening intently.
“You could say that.”
“You don’t sound too convinced.” Even with a head injury, she sits there questioning me, her tone with me is still the same, and I see her personality shining through. “Brody, do I have a bag? Personal stuff? Anything? Everything feels so foggy. Something might job my memory.”
Brody shuffles inside and opens the top drawer next to the bed. He pauses, then glances at me before he pulls out a diamond ring.
“Wow! Who would wear something like that? Yuck.” She chuckles.
“You did,” I tell her.
“I’m married?” she asks, eyes wide. “To you?” She points at me, her eyes wide while her body tenses.
“Engaged, yes… and no, not to me.” I grind out those last words, not wanting to spill them from my mouth. They grate all the way out, and I want nothing more than to shove them right up Farris’s ass.
“So, if not to you, then where is my fiancé? Shouldn’t he be here?”
“He’s recovering as well.”
“Why?” she asks.
“Because he was driving the car you were thrown from,” I state. The police report says the idiot was speeding, but I leave that part out. I’m still contemplating how and when I will end him.
She looks to Brody. “Did… did I love this man?”
“I didn’t even know you were engaged to him,” Brody replies. Her eyes go wide at that statement, and her head flops back on the pillow.
“That’s a no, then.” She looks to me, eyes glued to mine, but says nothing before she drifts off to sleep.
“How did you know she was engaged?” Brody asks.
I stand, pull on my jacket, and walk toward the door. “Stay with your sister, Brody. I’ll be back later after I’ve showered and changed.”
“You don’t need to come back,” he says. And it’s the first real taste of venom I’ve heard come from his lips.
“That may be true, but I’ll be back all the same,” I state as I walk out.
“Why are you here?” Merci is sitting on a seat in the waiting room when I finally arrive back at the hospital. She looks much the same—braided hair and a sour expression on her face when it comes to me. “She’s happy, you know. Without you in her life.”
“Is she?” I ask. “So much so that none of you knew she was engaged?” I had a feeling she didn’t know, and I just confirmed it by the look on her face. “Tell me… have you even met him?”