back. We just don’t know enough about short-term memory loss to say what could happen.”
I stood and started to pace. “So, I’m the trigger.”
“Not necessarily,” Dr. Brooks said. “The sound of a baby crying could trigger the memory. The sound of your laughter, simply seeing you. Seeing a picture of Amanda. Anything could trigger it.”
“Could it come back on its own?” Steve asked.
Both doctors nodded, but only Dr. Moore answered. “Yes, it could. She could wake up one day and remember.”
“I don’t want to be the cause of her being hurt again,” I said.
Amy stood. “What are you saying, Nolan?”
I swallowed hard. “Maybe I need to take myself out of the picture for a while. Leave her alone so she finds her own way back. At her own pace.”
Amy’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we need to pretend I wasn’t in her life. Let her memory come back to her when it wants.”
“What about Amanda?” Steve said. “Do we forget about her?”
Tears stung the back of my eyes, and I blinked rapidly. “No,” I whispered. “No, we never forget about her.”
Amy placed her hand on my arm and gave it a squeeze as I wiped my tears away. “But I can’t tell her. I can’t. You didn’t see the way she looked at me when she held Amanda in her arms and she was…”
My voice broke off, and I looked down at the floor.
“You have to ask yourself, are you prepared to hide some truths from her? She’s going to ask questions,” Dr. Brooks said.
I frowned and turned back to Dr. Brooks. “Why hasn’t she asked any questions? She hasn’t even asked what happened.”
Amy nodded. “She hasn’t. Not a single question. We’ve brought up the accident, and she simply says she doesn’t wish to talk about it.”
Dr. Moore replied, “Subconsciously, Linnzi knows what happened. Her mind, her body, whatever we want to call it, is blocking all accounts of the accident. Somewhere deep inside she knows, and she is afraid to remember.”
I turned to Amy and Steve. “You know how much I love your daughter. She’s the other part of me. If I have to walk away and pretend she never existed in my world—at least until she remembers—then that’s what we’ll do.”
“And Amanda?” Amy asked as tears rolled down her cheeks.
All I could do was shake my head.
Dr. Brooks cleared his throat. “I have to warn you, if you withhold this from her and she remembers on her own, or even looks up the accident and reads about it, she may never forgive you for not telling her the truth.”
I looked over at Dr. Brooks and stated, “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“She may never remember you, Nolan.” This came from Dr. Moore.
I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “She will. I know she will.”
My mind came back to the future as quickly as it had gone to the past, and I sat down opposite the two doctors. I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out.
Dr. Brooks still looked the same. Her dark blonde hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and she wore a genuine smile. Dr. Moore’s dark brown hair had streaks of gray running through it and he wore the same sympathetic expression on his face.
With a smile, Dr. Moore said, “Amy and Steve were in last week—we figured you wouldn’t be far behind.”
“Has Linnzi called you?” I asked Dr. Brooks.
She shook her head. “No. She has not.”
Drawing in a deep breath, I slowly exhaled. “She remembers bits and pieces of me. Me asking her to marry her. She seems to remember her love for me. It’s the strangest thing. She told me she couldn’t remember meeting me, but she knew deep down that she loved me.”
Both of them smiled.
Dr. Brooks said, “Love is a very powerful emotion, Nolan. Amy said that the entire time Linnzi was in France, she never dated.”
I nodded. “Linnzi did tell me she saw a counselor there. She said that they told her she was blocking a memory. Most likely a bad memory.”
Neither said a word.
Clearing my throat, I went on. “She told me she had been having dreams about me, and one time she saw me in France, sitting down at a coffee shop outside her work. Every time I went to Paris to check on her, I sat at the same coffee shop. It gave me a view of where she worked. I could see her come and