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“I know.” The bleak sadness in his eyes told her he begrudged every one of those days apart from her.
“It wasn’t only amnesia,” he told her, and she couldn’t doubt his desolate state. “I was in a coma for nearly a week. The doctors told me I suffered a stroke during that time, which isn’t uncommon. When I did wake, one side was briefly paralyzed. Not only was my memory gone, but my condition was complicated with other problems. It’s a miracle I’m here.” At her soft gasp, he kissed her fingertips. “I’ve recovered, and I’m here with you. That’s all that matters. Everything else is in the past.”
“Oh, Zane.”
“All the time I was in a mental haze, I felt this burning sense of urgency. A number of times, the pain and the frustration were more than I could bear and I wished for death, but I never entertained those thoughts long. Somehow I knew it was critical I live. Week after hopeless week I faced an empty future.”
“What triggered your memory?” Whatever it was, she would be forever grateful.
A hint of a smile touched his eyes. “An infant’s cry. I don’t know how many times I’d walked the hospital corridors. I’ll never know what prompted me to visit the maternity floor. Perhaps my inner spirit sensed my need to view life from the beginning.
“After so much time, I welcomed a new start. I remember wishing I could be born again. As I stood looking at the newborn infants, one let out a deep piercing scream.
“All at once, your face—your beautiful, perfect face—came to me. The memory was so brief, I shouted with agony, willing it back. The black veil lifted and eventually everything came back in bits and spurts.”
He smiled and gently kissed her. “The look, the love, the excitement expressed in your face when you told me you were pregnant glowed from your eyes. In that briefest of moments, I remembered.”
All these lonely months he’d been in a strange hospital, wrestling nameless demons, struggling to regain his memory and his sanity.
“Don’t leave me again,” she pleaded with him, struggling with her tears. “I couldn’t go through this again.” Even as she choked out the words, she knew his own hell had been much worse than hers. Zane fought to live, but didn’t know for whom or why.
“Never again,” he promised, kissing her.
“You’re alive, alive,” she chanted, wanting to shout with joy. The beauty of that reality filled her heart and crowded her soul.
As soon as it was possible, they made love. Zane’s hands rested on her rounded stomach. Their child moved against him and his eyes widened as his gaze slowly traveled to her.
“A girl,” she whispered.
“Dr. Wilson told you?”
“No,” she told him with a happy, satisfied smile. “You did.”
His look was skeptical.
“I thought you had,” she amended, and brought his mouth down to hers. “If we have a boy, then all I can say is that we’ll have to try again.”
Her husband’s dark eyes sparkled. “Anything you say, sweetheart.”
* * * * *
