Collateral Damage

chapter 20

I opened my eyes to bright light, eliciting a groan from my lips. A man in a white coat, studying a sheet stood near where I was lying.

A bed. I was lying on a bed. My head pounded and I squinted at my surroundings. Everything was sickeningly bleached of color. White walls, white curtains, white bedsheets.

Even the man was wearing white. Doctor. He was wearing a doctor's coat. Slowly, the fuzziness began clearing from my brain, letting me think properly.

What the hell was I doing in a hospital?

Then I remembered the box. The box with my belongings in it. Everything in there belonged to me. What was it doing with Alexis? I sat up and looked around. Where was he?

The doctor looked up, a pair of sleek glasses rested on the end of his nose.

'Ah you're awake, Miss Nolan,' he said, removing his glasses and keeping them in the front pocket of his coat.

'Why am I here, doctor?' I asked, then cleared my throat because my voice came out husky. The doctor offered me a glass of water and I took a few sips before keeping it back on the small table beside the bed.

'Thank you,' I said as he settled on a chair near my bed.

'Do you want me to call your fiancé?' he asked.

Noah was here? I furrowed my eyebrows until I realized he wasn't my fiancé anymore. He had been my fiancé for a long time so it was weird that he wasn't anymore.

I was going to tell him that I didn't have a fiancé when I realized he must be talking about Alexis. I looked heavenwards. He needed to stop telling everyone that we're engaged.

'No, it's alright,' I told the doctor. I needed to clear my head before I faced him.

He nodded.

'Are you aware that you suffer from retrograde amnesia?' he asked.

'Yes,' I answered. I stared at the wall ahead of me.

'Do you know what caused it?' he asked.

'Trauma,' I said almost robotically.

'What kind of trauma?' he ventured as if he had stepped foot on dangerous territory.

I closed my eyes. I didn't realize I was trying to recall until my head started aching.

'It's alright, Miss Nolan. Don't strain yourself,' he said.

I nodded.

The doctor wrote me a prescription and I was free to go home a few hours later. Alexis had driven us. He didn't say anything to me when he came into my hospital room. He helped me into the car and the got in the driver's side. I stared outside the window the whole way back. Alexis didn't try to start a conversation.

Once inside the apartment, I went straight into my room and brought out a bag from my closet. I kept it on my bed and unzipped it, letting the flap fall back.

I grabbed whatever clothes my eyes fell on, dropped them along with the hangers on the bed and went back for a few more pairs.

'What are you doing?' a voice asked from the doorway. It was the first thing he said to me since I had left the office last afternoon.

'What does it look like?' I said, throwing more clothes on the bed.

I began folding the clothes. But really, I was just removing hangers and rolling them up in a ball and stuffing them in the bag. I couldn't do it fast enough.

I heard him enter the room.

'Stop,' he said in a low voice.

I didn't stop. I just kept on doing what I was doing, only faster.

'Stop this,' he repeated, taking hold of my wrist.

I snapped my head up to look at him. 'Why? Why stop?' I asked.

His face was so blank it was unnerving to even look at him.

'Why are you doing this?' he asked.

I dropped the clothes on the bed and turned my whole body to face him, freeing my hand in the process. 'You really want to know?' I asked.

He didn't say anything.

'Alright,' I grabbed his hand and dragged him inside my walk-in closet. I didn't even have to say anything else. The reason was kept on the closet floor for everyone to see.

His eyes widened. 'Where did you find this?' he asked.

I let go of his hand and stood near the closet door. 'What is it, Alexis?' I asked.

He looked from the box named PIERA to me. He stepped toward me, reaching for me with his hand.

'Don't come near me,' I warned.

His hand dropped to his side. 'Just let me explain,' he said.

'What can you possibly say that could explain this?' I pointed to the box.

He said nothing.

'That's what I thought,' I left him there and resumed my packing with more vigor.

'Let's talk,' he said, calmly.

I zipped up the bag and hefted it. He put his hand on the bag. 'Why do you want to leave so bad? Why can't you just listen to me?' he demanded.

'I'm just doing what I should've done ages ago. I shouldn't even have been here in the first place!' I said sharply, pinning him with a glare. I snatched my bag away, picked up my purse, and moved away from him.

'Don't go, Piera,' he pleaded.

I halted in my steps, my grip tightening on the strap of the bag. I slowly turned around.

'What did you call me?' I asked in a deadly calm voice.

'Your name. Piera,' he said. His eyes were sharp and he seemed to be trying to bury an emotion that was trying to surface.

Cold dread seeped into my bones. I took a step backward. Somewhere it still hadn't clicked in my brain that he knew about me. More than I knew about myself.

'Who are you?' I asked.

He raised both his hands in surrender. 'I'm Alexis. I never lied to you,' he said.

Yeah, he just hid things from me.

I shook my head. 'What do you want from me?' Another wave of dizziness went through me and my steps faltered.

He took a step towards me. 'Don't,' I hissed.

'Let me help you,' he said.

'I don't need your help,' I snapped.

A burst of angry laughter was bubbling inside me, I suppressed it.

'You should have never dug up my past, Alexis,' I said. A dark, humorless chuckle left my lips.

He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off by raising my hand. 'Save it. I'm leaving and everything between us ends now,' I said.

I turned one last time. 'Oh, and I quit,' I said.

With a bag and a purse my only possessions, I left his apartment.