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"I was in my own hospital bed."
"With minor complications. A concussion, I believe. If you loved me, would you not have had your bed and mine in the same room so you could be here, hoping for my awakening?"
She'd never once considered her absence from his bedside might affect him this way. Evidently, he'd taken it as proof positive she wasn't the wife she should be. And right at that moment, she could not make herself care. What difference did it make? He obviously had never wanted to be married to her in the first place.
But even as angry as she was, part of her wanted to exonerate herself by telling him of her pregnancy and the ordered bed rest. However, Adam had been very explicit…no revelations of that sort until Aristide regained his memory or they understood better why he'd lost it.
And she had to wonder if it would make a difference. He clearly had expected her to get a bed in his room for treating her concussion—would the reason for her bed rest make any difference to him? Probably not.
"It didn't occur to me," she admitted with pained honesty, just wanting to leave.
"Perhaps it should have."
"Apparently, but we aren't all brilliant tycoons with a penchant for solving logistics problems even while under sedation for our injuries."
"I do not appreciate your sarcasm."
"I'm sure you don't, but then you don't seem to appreciate anything at all about me now. And let's face it…you didn't exactly miss me. You forgot I even existed in your life."
"You act as if I did it on purpose."
"Didn't you?"
"Maybe I had reason."
"Is that what Kassandra said? That I'm some kind of monster wife who so tormented your existence you had to forget me?"
His silence said it all.
"And you believed her?"
"What other reason could there be for such selective amnesia? It only makes sense that I wanted to forget you. That you were the kind of wife a man like me would find intolerable." He didn't sound entirely convinced, but the words were damaging all the same.
"That's a pretty big assumption," she forced out between stiff lips, cold with the shock of his revelations.
"Not made without supporting evidence."
"Maybe you wanted to forget you had a wife at all," she said, voicing her own private suspicion. "Before I got pregnant with Theo, you weren't exactly keen on commitment."
"I am not so weak." And she could tell such an image of himself did not sit well.
"Maybe there's no reason for the amnesia. Maybe it's one of those inexplicable medical things that happens sometimes."
He shook his head, rejecting her no-fault excuse. "That is not likely. The doctor can find no physical reason for the selective amnesia."
"Did Adam say he thinks you wanted to forget me?"
"Adam?"
"Doctor Lewis."
"I find it odd my wife is on first-name terms with my doctor."
"You forget, he was my doctor as well. He's been very kind to me since the accident. He knew how much your coma upset me."
"Well, even your good friend the doctor believes my amnesia is psychologically rather than physiologically triggered."
She let the "good friend" comment pass, not willing to be sidetracked from the point by something so insignificant. "But that doesn't necessarily follow that you forgot me because I was a bad wife. You're too smart to have married a woman that unsuitable. Surely you must see that."
She couldn't live with that possibility. Bad enough that he may have wanted to forget her simply because he had never really wanted to be married in the first place.
"I have to wonder if our marriage was the only way you would give me power in my son's life."
"You think I would use our child to blackmail you?"
He shrugged. "If that is the case, I am surprised I fell for it. After all, I had watched the Queen Piranha at work for years in her marriage to my uncle and, as you said, I am intelligent; however, love for a child may make a fool of the father."
Eden stumbled back and landed with a thump on the chair. "You believe I'm like Andrea Demakis?" she asked hoarsely, even more horrified by that than the idea he believed her capable of using Theo for her own ends.
There was no greater insult he could level at her.
She'd never known his uncle's wife. Both Matthias and Andrea had died in a car crash before Eden and Aristide met, but the stories about the woman were horrific. Aristide and the rest of his family had hated her. According to them, Andrea had been money-grubbing, irrational, unfaithful, entirely selfish and more egotistical than Narcissus.
The miracle was that such a woman could give birth to an incredible daughter like Rachel. Even more amazing was that Rachel had ended up married to Aristide's older brother, Sebastian Kouros. Having met her sister-in-law's father, Eden figured all the good genes had come from him. Vincent was a very special man, who had been capable of luring Phillippa from the isolation of her widowhood.
According to Aristide, their marriage was something like the eighth wonder of the world.
Adam walked in at that moment and frowned when he took in her tears and the look of frustrated anger on Aristide's face. "Eden, I was not aware your husband had asked for you."
She was beyond prevaricating, even with silence. "He didn't."
"My wife does not need to wait for an invitation to visit me." The glare Aristide gave the doctor should have singed his white lab coat. "Nor do I appreciate the familiarity of your address to her."
"I'm sorry it offends you. However, what concerns me the most is that this kind of upset isn't good for your condition," he said, indicating the two of them with a wave of his hand.
"My condition is a slight concussion and selective amnesia," Aristide said in a freezing tone he usually saved for the boardroom. "I fail to see how either could be hindered by a visit from my wife. Surely being in her company should jog my memory, not harm it."
"She is in tears."
"I noticed. If you leave, I can take care of that."
The doctor's brows rose at her husband's arrogance, but he nodded. "That might be best. This can't be an easy situation for either of you. I will come by later to discuss your release."
Eden scrambled to her feet, wiping her wet cheeks, embarrassed and still hurting so much she found it hard to breathe. "Don't leave, Adam. There's no need. I'm going."
She tried to pull her coat from Aristide's grip, but he wouldn't release his hold. "Let go."
"I told you. I will not tolerate you leaving so quickly."
She'd had enough. He probably wanted the doctor to leave so he could berate her some more, but she wasn't sticking around for it. She let the coat go and rushed toward the door.
Aristide called her name in a voice heavy with frustration and demand. She ignored him and barreled out of his room, almost knocking Kassandra down in the process. The other woman had obviously been hanging around outside the door and eavesdropping.
Her smug expression said she liked what she'd heard too.
Considering how painful the interview had been for Eden, she saw red. Literally. A blood-red haze seemed to surround the tall Greek woman as Eden glared at her, incapable of making the movement that would separate them. Kassandra had done everything in her power to undermine Eden's marriage and now she was bent on destroying it completely.
But Eden wasn't going to let that happen. If she and Aristide failed in their bid to make a successful family, it would be because he didn't love Eden, not because Kassandra succeeded with her evil machinations. The woman was pure poison and it was not a poison Eden would allow to taint her marriage any longer. Desperate anger clawed at her insides. Whatever it took, she was going to fight for her marriage and for the man she loved.
"You ought to watch where you are going." Kassandra shoved her away, making no pretense of being polite or gentle and Eden fell against the wall.
Fear for her baby added to the cauldron of dark emotion boiling inside of her. "Don't ever do that again."
Kassandra appeared supremely unconcerned by Eden's anger. "Or what, Mrs Kouros? You'll tell Aristide? Do you really think he would care? I am his friend, the woman he remembers. He let me feed him, but he knocked you back," she said, confirming she'd been listening in on their conversation via the open door. "He doesn't mind my touch. He trusts me. Do you really think he'll care if I'm rude to you, or even believe you if you tell him so? He's already forgotten you. You're nothing to him. It won't be long before he's ready to kick you out of his life as quickly as he invited you into it."
Eden's mind seemed to screech to a halt at the viciously mocking words. She couldn't think. She could only feel and it was the blackest rage she'd ever known. No thought sparked her next action, just unadulterated fury. She slapped the other woman hard. The violence shocked her, but she didn't even begin to feel like apologizing.
