I feel like snapping at her, but the urgency to unfold the truth prevents me from doing that.
"I just want to talk to you about something important." When I hear nothing from the other side of the line, I continue, "Did you hide some facts from me when I lost my memory seven years ago?"
Silence creeps between us. It takes a while for Morgan to answer.
"What are you talking about?" she asks, her voice small.
I'm starting to feel impatient. "Did you know about my trip to Hallstatt?" I snap.
Again, Morgan doesn't answer right away. Seconds of silence feels like ages to me.
"Cassie, I really don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't you dare lie to me," I hiss, feeling tears pool in my eyes, my emotions about to explode. "Did you know about Luke?" I shout. "Did you know that I met him in Hallstatt?"
The sound of something dropping onto the ground echoes from Morgan's side, and I know that she just dropped something due to the shock.
"What?" she blurts out.
Silence fills the air again.
"That guy..." Morgan falters, her voice shaking. "That guy isLuke?" Disbelief is laced in her tone.
I freeze. So Morgan knew that I met a man in Hallstatt, but she didn't know that it was Luke.
"Why didn't you tell me everything?" my voice cracks. "Why didn't you tell me about him? Did you throw away my ring too?"
"Oh, Cassie," Morgan's voice softens, and it makes me scared, because there's mischief in it. "It was just a holiday fling. It was nothing important."
I'm at a loss for words.
"That guy was no good for you," she says. "Come on, Cassie. How could you trust a guy that you just met in a random country who gave you empty promises? I was trying to protect you. Remembering him would only harm you. Moreover, the doctor said that your memory could come back if you experienced a similar situation or saw things that triggered your memory back, so I was afraid you would freak out if you remembered him. I had to dispose of that ring, Cassie."
I'm trying to calm my breathing, my chest heaving up and down.
"But you just can't—" My words are cut short when she hangs up. Just like that.
I'm utterly speechless.
I've met Luke before. I've forgotten him.
I feel like something is still missing. Morgan has hidden all the things related to my lost memory—there might be other facts that she kept away from me.
But even if Morgan hid everything from me, there must be something only I kept that she missed.
Think, Cassie. Think.
What would I have kept during that one year? Things that would never leave me. There must be some other clues.
Then I remember the packages that Morgan sent to me from LA, my belongings that she returned to me because she didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore.
I rush to the music room. Panting, I stare at my old guitar placed in the corner of the room. It's the guitar I always used to make music from the time I was sixteen—I used it for years.
I must have used it in 2014 too.
I grab it and turn it upside down, shaking it so that a few tiny yellow sticky note balls fall from the sound hole.
I've always had a habit of writing songs on sticky notes before crumpling them into tiny balls and slipping them into the sound hole whenever I feel frustrated.
