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For a moment, I couldn’t understand. I worried my mind had split and regressed to the past, where I was sixteen and freshly orphaned.
But she was older.
She held secrets in her stare and looked at me as if she knew all of mine in return.
Slowly, she removed her hand from my forehead and stood upright. “So you remember me, then? I did wonder if you would. After all, we only spoke for such a short time.”
Wincing, I slowly sat up. My ribs were knives, my lungs their enemy. Memories crowded me. Numbers might arrange themselves in my brain with colours, but so did dates and experiences.
I could recite the time and year of so many events. Every moment I’d spent with Neri. Every stolen touch. Every awful longing. It was all there, filed neatly inside my head. Even with a skull-splitting headache, I managed to tug on one of those recollection strings and pull history to the surface.
Clearing my throat, I threw a glance at the double doors, then back to the nurse. “Of course, I remember you. You know my name. You know Anna Taylor. You were the last to see me in the hospital in Port Douglas.”
Her eyebrows rose along with her lips. “I knew you had an eidetic memory.”
I might not have known that word when I was newly shipwrecked, but now I did. I went to argue with her, but...the description fit, even if it was proven that most adults didn’t have one.
I could vividly recall most things.
I saw in pictures and colours, not words and thoughts.
I was both grateful for the gift and cursed it on a daily basis because it was yet another trait from him.
I gritted my teeth. “A-Are you going to tell them who I am?”
Her shoulders swooped back as if I’d offended her. “Of course not.”
“Why?” Sluggishness flowed in my veins. A sour aftertaste coated my tongue. At least the pain that’d pushed me under was thankfully duller than before. “What are you doing here?”
“I work here now.”
Pressing my hand against my battered ribcage, I looked again at the exit, feeling the unconquerable need to run. “I need to leave.”
“I agree.”
I froze. “Wait. You’re going to help me?”
“Look, we don’t have much time, so I’ll be brief. The driver who hit you? He’s here too. He was treated last night—”
“Last night?” My mouth fell open. “How long have I been here?”
“Thirteen hours.”
“Kahretsin.” I shook my head. “That’s thirteen hours too long.”
“It’s not ideal, I agree. But you were out cold, and I figured nothing could happen to you while you were asleep, especially while no one knew who you were. Unfortunately...” Her eyes tightened as she shifted with worry. “The driver was interviewed this morning by the police. He mentioned that Neri had screamed your name when trying to rouse you. He gave that name to the police. He’s been overly cooperative, I’m afraid. Trying to save his own neck, I suppose.”
The world narrowed to a pinprick of horror.
“I only found out ten minutes ago,” she rushed. “I’m not even supposed to be working anymore but...you can’t stay here. The police have your name. They know you were the man the driver hit. I’m sure they’re coming—”
“We need to go. Right now.” I swung my legs out of bed.
Stars danced over my vision.
My hip flared.
My back pulled where the stitches held my flesh together.
