More Than Memories (17 page)

“You don’t know that, do you? For all you know, maybe
you took off laughing at everyone as you left. And we shouldn’t have to let you
come back like nothing happened. David shouldn’t have to either. So he wants
Alicia to choose. You and I both know she’ll pick you. I just wanted you to
know what you’re doing to her.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Molly asked, irked,
hot with anger.

“Think Alicia’s going to?” Bev laughed. “She
wouldn’t want you worrying over something else. Everyone thinks we have to
protect you, like you deserve that.”

“So once again, Bev, why did you call me down here
to tell me? If Alicia needs to talk to me, she will.” Molly started to see Bev
took extra pleasure in hurting her.

“Why don’t you stay there? You’ll ruin David’s
marriage if you come back.” Bev hung up on her.

Ruin David’s marriage? Could Bev actually care and
worry that much about him? Or did she just want Molly to stay in California and
let Trent return alone?

So now what could she do? She considered calling
Alicia, asking if it were true about his dead fiancé and about him making
Alicia choose.

She heard Trent’s footsteps and realized he’d gone
to the bathroom and maybe missed all of the conversation. She could always ask
him about David’s fiancé.

He came into the room with the words, “Was that
important?” She shook her head and he went on, “I don’t want to rush things,
but we need to find out what’s in those filing cabinets.”

Since she wasn’t ready to tell him what she’d just
learned, she nodded. Maybe they could discuss it downstairs while they searched
through papers.

“You can’t possibly think there’s another bomb
shell waiting for us, do you?” she asked. If only he knew just how many
bombshells had exploded that day. Her mind whizzed in too many directions, so
she let it all go for the moment. For now, she let him take her hand and pull
her towards the basement door.

One glance at her face told Trent that Molly had
something on her mind. Of course, there was a lot going on for them to think
about. Apparently the shooting was bothering her still. He flicked the light on
before going down the stairs first. He’d considered telling her the rest about
them, maybe downstairs, but not if something else was bothering her. “Are you
doing okay?”

“I’m still
shaky,
but okay. You must have nerves of steel to keep your cool like that.”

“I need it for my job.” He’d been through tough
training, not just from his job, but from life. After losing Molly, there were
times when he thought it wouldn’t be so bad if a bullet took him out. Then he
would remind himself he might find her again.

He went right to the file cabinet. “It’s locked.”

Molly sighed, but Trent went to work on the lock
with the tools he found by the basement door. She peeked in a few boxes while
he worked, looking like she was thinking more than looking.

“There.” He slid it open, but didn’t flip through
the files. “Would you like to look first?”

“I ought to, right?” She stepped closer and he
rubbed her shoulders and back. This would be a great time to fill her in.
“Thanks, I needed that. These are just financial and medical records, taxes,
business papers. I wonder why they locked this.”

“People tend to lock up their financials and
health records. Are the files properly labeled?”

“What do you mean?” she asked while she pulled out
a paper from a file labeled 1985 taxes. “Yup.” She closed that drawer and
opened another one, finding more years. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Well, most cases aren’t solved in a day.” He
stepped closer and quickly flipped through the files, then pointed to 1990,
which looked twice as thick as the others. It appeared her parents kept
excellent records so he guessed they’d find answers to at least one of their
questions in there.

“Aha.” She pulled it out and flipped it open on
top of the cabinet. She pushed aside the year’s tax papers and found newspaper
articles from Ridge City about their disappearance. “They did know about the
havoc we left behind.” He held her arms still and read over her shoulder. After
reading a couple of the articles she glanced at him with sadness in her eyes.

“What’s behind those?” he pressed, wanting to see
the white papers underneath. It’d be good for Molly to read the articles in
depth to fill in the events four years ago, but he knew that story by heart. He
held his breath as she picked up the article clippings to reveal a packet of
official papers.

Molly froze.

Trent read the paper and wanted to grab it, but
she knew already.
How did her parents get those?
He’d looked all over ….
That didn’t matter now. Damnit, this answered a big question for Molly, but he
should have told her. This wasn’t right.

“Trent?” He heard both hurt and confusion in her
voice which sounded close to tears.

“Mol.” Somehow he’d need to explain, fast, because
she couldn’t miss the big diamond ring taped to their marriage license. He
stood behind her so he couldn’t see her face, her reaction, and probably her
anger.

Trying to tell her about their marriage went on
the back burner when he realized she might truly be in danger. Since the day he
saw her in Ridge City, he ached to confess how much he loved her, missed her,
wanted to hold her forever and ever, and share everything: their love, eloping,
and dreams for their future together. How do you tell that to someone who can’t
remember you?

Would she understand that?

The silence grew.

What could she be thinking?

He’d hurt her in the worst way and vowed he’d
never hold anythin
g from her a
gain. No more
wimping out, waiting for the right moment, procrastinating. What had he been
thinking? Alicia was right:
spineless
.

He saw her hand shaking on the papers before she
turned and looked at him through her tears. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The quiet, slow way she asked seemed worse than an
angry yell, but at least she was giving him a chance to explain.

“I didn’t know how you’d react.” Speaking proved
hard as he stared at her. “I’ve been scared to tell you, like it’d take the
choice away from you. It’s been four years. I thought you might not want this
anymore. I just couldn’t face that.”

“We’re married.” The way she looked at him, he
thought she was taking him in again, like it was the first time. “You’re my
husband.”

“Everything’s coming at you so fast. I wanted you
to remember slowly. But today, I realized someone might want to hurt you. I
wanted to get to the bottom of this.” He waited, painfully, but she didn’t
speak. “I was wrong. I knew it on the way down from Ridge City, knew I should
have told you. That made it even harder.”

“So when
did
you plan to tell me?”

“When you remembered more.” That second it hit
him. He’d been waiting for her to remember. If she remembered, maybe that meant
she wanted it. However, his logic didn’t hold up for him now. “I thought maybe
you would remember more of our relationship, remember that I proposed.”

Her shock gave way to anger, and she paced the
small floor. Trent expected her to turn at any minute and throw a punch into
his face. He wanted her to. It’d make him feel better.

“Everyone kept this from me?”

“No.” He stepped closer, hoping she wouldn’t run
out of the room with only half the story. “We were planning our wedding, and
wanted to run off to Reno. So we did. We took a few days coming back, planning
to surprise everyone, and we spent the first day home resting from the trip. We
hadn’t slept much.” If the situation weren’t so serious, he’d probably blush as
he remembered how they spent those few days together.

“And?”

“Then you were gone.
” He
felt his face drain of color. He
tried to swallow before going on, but
his throat was completely dry. Thinking about that day left him feeling like he
couldn’t breathe. “You were going to run to your house and pick up a few
things.”

“I was gone, just gone?”

“I called your house
after a couple hours – no answer. Alicia hadn’t seen you in five days, since
we’d been out of town. I ran by the store and around town on my way to your house
and saw your car. Plus two police cars. People. Everyone whispering. When I
arrived, everyone turned and stared at me. We looked everywhere. Called
everywhere. No one saw anything.”

As hard as it was to tell her this, he could see
she had a hard time listening. Her breathing came in quick intakes.

“I can’t do this.” Her voice rose to a shrill
pitch while she threw up her hands. “The world’s coming at me like I’m a boxing
bag. What gives?”

“Mol.” He held his hand out to her. “I’ll do
anything to help, to make this better.”

She whirled mid step while pacing to stare at him.
“This? Or everything? Look at my life, Trent.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you suffered, too. I know.” Tears clogged
her eyes and emotion stuffed her throat. “We all did. But it just keeps going.
I lost my parents before I knew them again. I find out I lost an entire life.
Before I thought I didn’t have much, but I found you and Alicia.”

Wasn’t that her happy ending? That she’d found
them again?

“Don’t be sad about all of it,” he pleaded, knowing
they’d lost a lot but couldn’t get it back. “You found your life again. Seeing
you again ... that’s all I need. Knowing you’re safe. Being with you.”

“Safe.” She wiped at her face. “I am glad you’re
here. It does make me feel a lot safer, but everything else feels so messed up.
Bev called today.”

“That was Bev?” The very name made his stomach
churn. They did not need anything else to complicate this for them.

“She said David wants Alicia to choose between him
and me.”

“That weasel, if he did.” Trent stopped, not
believing that David would do that to his wife. Everyone needed friends outside
of their spouse. “Bev could be making it up. I’d bet she is.”

Molly paced again. “Did you know he was engaged
before?”

Tren
t looked a bit
shocked and s
hook his head, wondering why this was connected to their
present conversation, to their marriage license. He guessed the world really
was crashing down on Molly, jumbling her mind. “I met him after he and Alicia
started dating. So I suppose there are things about his life we wouldn’t know.”

“So you don’t know that his fiancé died?” She told
him what little information she’d gotten about it.

“According to Bev?”

“She’s his cousin, right?” Molly asked. He nodded
but planned to call David about it and help Molly work this out. He wanted to
help his sister and her husband as well. This must have caused some of their
difficulties.

“Things won’t stay like this.” He stepped closer.
“Listen, Alicia won’t do this. She’ll make him understand. And I’m sure she
knows if she turns her back on you, she’s turning her back on me, too.”

“She’s your sister. I don’t want to be the cause
of that.”

“You aren’t. Bev and David are. I know we can work
it all out. Everyone involved cares about each other. No one would want a
division like that.” He suddenly wondered how Molly felt about Alicia being his
sister and also how David and Bev were related. She’d come into Ridge City and
walked into a complicated situation. The group of friends was partly based on
family ties, and even if Molly had known that growing up, it was new to her
this time.

“I’ve caused a lot of problems. I know what’s
going on with your job, how people blamed you for my family’s disappearance.”

“That’s right,
other
people. A lot of other
people are causing problems while we’re just trying to solve the case and get
your memory back.” He stepped close enough to take her hand. “I care about what
you think, just you.”

“Trent, I could mess your whole life up. I have
already.”

“I get to decide that,” he said, steady. “We’re in
it for the long haul whether or not you like it.”

After a minute of simply looking at him, she
pulled in a deep breath and started for the door. “I can’t ruin everything.”

“Mol, no –”

“I think I need to ... need to get some breathing
room, think things through. I’m going up to my room.”

He watched her leave and didn’t move. His vision
went black and he had to grab hold of something to give him balance. Other
people shouldn’t be able to whisper those old rumors, not with her back. Just
like that day she’d first disappeared, he felt like he was falling
uncontrollably into a great, black abyss. Like the most important part of his
life was slipping away.

So now she knew everything. Up in her room, Molly
paced behind her shut door. She wanted to call someone, Karen or Alicia, but
didn’t reach for her phone. If only her parents were alive so she could demand
some answers. Tell them how angry she felt over everything. Tell them how she
missed them.

She fell backward onto the bed and covered her
face. Well, she’d gone to Ridge City looking for answers. She found Trent. A
few memories. And now she found out she was married.

Yeah, she was
mad he hadn’t
told her, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about the actual fact that they were
married.

“Molly Avery Williams. Mrs. Williams.” She tried
it out and felt excitement run through her. She wanted to remember eloping. No,
she wanted to be mad at him. What right did he have not telling her something
so
consequential?
Something
that might have brought her memory back. He could have told her the day he
stepped out into the police station lobby. He could have said, “Molly Anderson?
I mean, Molly Williams? I’m your husband.”

They’d driven all the way down here to discover
something Trent could have simply told her.