Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,96

that he didn’t even seem to want to try.

“I love you,” she said knowing at last what the right thing to do for him – the man that she loved, and Charlie – the only friend that she’d ever known, was.

“I know,” he said looking guiltier now than he had before.

“I’m not saying it to make you feel bad. I just want you to know that I love you, and that’s the reason why I’ve been keeping something from you,” she said not letting her eyes drop from his.

He looked at her, and she saw him scrutinising her face.

“A while back I had a visit from Claire,” Emily said. To which she saw Matt’s head drop momentarily. Yet when he looked back up at her, she noticed that all traces of guilt that had previously lined his face had gone. He looked like his conscience had just been wiped clean.

“She came to tell me something about Charlie,” Emily continued feeling confused by what she was seeing in Matt’s face.

He put his hand gently back to her face, and he kissed her lightly on the lips and said; “Claire is, and always has been trouble. Whatever she told, it would’ve been a lie.”

Emily watched him get up and put his jacket on. “Where are you going?” She asked him.

“I really ought to go back to the hospital and see out my shift,” he said.

“Should I not be here when you get back?” She asked.

“I’m going to take a couple of day’s annual leave. I need to get away to clear my head,” he said from the back door. “You’re welcome here for as long as it takes you to find somewhere new,” he said sincerely. She then watched him walk out of the house and close the door behind him.

Emily raced to the door and opened it, and she ran to catch up with him. “Matt,” she called.

He turned round and looked at her quizzically.

“If it was as you say most likely a lie then you won’t care,” Emily said; “but I need to tell you.”

Matt stood there waiting patiently, and Emily composed herself.

“Charlie has her memory back,” Emily said.

She waited for Matt’s reaction. She had expected him to either be relieved or to be furious with her for not having told him sooner, but he seemed nonplussed.

“As I said,” he said; “Claire’s nothing but trouble.”

He walked away and Emily watched him go, and as she walked back inside the house she felt confused. She sat down again on the sofa and replayed the conversation that they’d just had in her head, but still she couldn’t fathom out what his nonchalant response to her revelation about Charlie had meant.

She got up to make a drink, and as the kettle boiled it came to her. Matt had never trusted Claire, and Claire had never liked Matt. It had been a lie. Claire must’ve told her what she had in an attempt to sabotage their relationship. Well the plan hadn’t worked. Their relationship had ended because Matt couldn’t commit, and he’d known that she’d wanted and needed him to.

Emily walked back into the living room and sat down on the sofa again, and as she did she looked at the one photo in the room of the two of them together. It had been taken at Rich and Bex’s wedding, and she couldn’t help but get up and walk over to it. Matt had his arm around her and they were smiling, but where she looked genuinely happy she saw that he looked distracted.

She’d wanted him to love her desperately, but he hadn’t and now he’d left her. She was all alone again, and as this realisation hit her she began to cry once more.

Matt

He hadn’t been able to get anyone to cover his Sunday shift for him, so he’d stayed on Rich and Bex’s sofa on Saturday night. During his Sunday shift he’d managed to arrange cover for his shifts on Monday and Tuesday, and he was already scheduled to have Wednesday off. He’d also called Claire, and after she’d ranted at him for five long minutes he’d finally been able to explain the reason for his call. He’d told her that he’d broken up with Emily and that he was coming down to see Charlie tomorrow. He’d wanted to know where she worked, and how to get there.

Claire had quickly forgotten that she’d hated him, and that she’d been furious with him, and she’d given him all of the information that