Trey

After rushing to the hospital, Mandy and I get off the elevator and head directly to Tyler’s room. As we approach the door I can hear Vanessa’s voice. I stop short and glance back at Mandy to let her know that I want to hold back for a moment.

“I have always loved you Tyler and I hope we will be able to get back to how things used to be,” she says in a tone that almost sounds like she is pleading with him. Feelings of Déjà vu wash over me as I stand outside the doorway listening to her profession of love for him. I might be the shoulder that she prefers to cry upon, but he has always had her heart.

“I’ll try my best,” Tyler responds. “But it might take me a while to piece all of this back together.”

“You are doing just fine,” Mom interjects, walking up to his bedside. “Everything will come back to you in time.”

Vanessa bends down and kisses him on the forehead, before turning back toward us. In that split second, my immediate impulse is to duck around the corner just as I did a decade ago, but I realize there is no longer any reason to do that.

“He’s awake!” I exclaim, taking a step forward into the doorway with Mandy’s hand in mine. “How are you doing buddy?”

“He doesn’t even remember me,” Vanessa answers on his behalf with tears streaming down her face. “He doesn’t remember anything.”

“It could just be temporary,” Mom adds, seeming happy to simply have him out of the coma. “The doctor said it mainly affected his short term memory.”

I think back to the conversation with Dr. Novacek when he told us that his short-term memory was certainly going to be disrupted, but there was also a fifty-fifty chance that his long-term memory would be affected.

“I’m just glad to see you awake,” I tell him as I approach the bed.

“Hi.” he greets me with a blank stare. “You’re pretty,” he says looking past me and toward Mandy.

“Thank you,” she replies holding out her hand. “I’m Mandy.”

“She’s my girlfriend,” I explain to him, hoping he won’t say anything more about her with Vanessa still in the room.

“You and Vanessa are engaged,” I tell him, reaching for her arm and pulling her back to the bed. “Here is the ring you gave her,” I explain, holding her hand up so he can see it.

“Wow, that’s huge,” he gasps. “How much did that cost?” He looks back and forth between the four of us with wide eyes.

“Oh, it wasn’t that much,” Vanessa retorts, with her cheeks turning a flushed red.

“Well, it sure is a big ring,” he says shaking his head back and forth.

“Do you remember me?” I ask him, crouching down to give him a better look.

“Hmm, you seem kind of familiar,” he replies, narrowing his eyes and studying my face. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you before.” He nods his head and continues to examine my features.

“Do one of you have a mirror?” I ask, figuring at least one of them would have a makeup mirror or something like that.

Both Mom and Mandy begin rummaging through their purses. “Here you go,” Mom says first, handing me a small mirror.

“Okay, Tyler. Look at yourself in this mirror and then look at me,” I tell him, holding the mirror next to my face so he can look back and forth between the two.

“It’s you,” he says with a totally perplexed look on his face.

“No. It’s you,” I reply, tipping the mirror down a bit so he can see his hospital gown.

“That’s crazy!” he exclaims looking back and forth between the mirror and me. He looks down at his gown. “What am I even doing here?” he asks, becoming a bit agitated.

“Someone poisoned you and they nearly killed you,” Mom begins to explain. “This is your twin brother,” she tells him, placing her hand on my arm.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” he says, still looking confused and shaking his head from side to side. “You look just like me,” he adds with an astonished expression on his face.

“It will all come back to you in time,” I tell him, hoping that my words are true. We all stand around him, just happy that he has pulled through.

“You are beautiful, too,” he says to Vanessa after staring at her for several seconds. “I don’t think I told you how pretty you are.”

Vanessa breaks into the first smile I’ve seen on her face since I’ve been back. “Thank you Ty. That’s all you really need to remember.” She leans over and gives him a kiss on the cheek while he continues to sit there with a dazed look on his face.

“The toxicology report is back,” Thelma, announces as she comes bouncing through the door waving a small stack of papers in her hand. “Officers are already on their way to pick up Dr. Potaturri.”

“So it was that bad?” I ask her.

“It was definitely bad,” she replies, lowering her head and raising her eyebrows. “Mescaline, DET and Hydrocodone. So you were probably walking around like you had been roofied,” she says giving Tyler a sympathetic look.

“That explains a few things!” Vanessa gasps. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

“So he was basically stoned for the past month?” Mom asks, looking totally confused.

“You could say that,” Thelma responds. “The combination affects each person differently, but I can assure you that he definitely won’t remember much from that whole period of time.”

Tyler simply stares at her, trying to process what she is saying. Mom and Vanessa appear to be in shock and don’t even seem to know what to ask her. I glance over at Mandy and it’s obvious that both of us are thinking the same thing.

“So if someone wanted to wipe out Tyler’s memory, that was a pretty good way to do it?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“It was a genius way to do it,” she says with her eyes lighting up. “Giving him a high dose of Propofol and then administering Lorazepam in his IV most likely took care of any remaining memories. It was a perfect storm in there.” She reaches over and runs her fingers through Tyler’s hair.

“So is he going to be okay?” Mom asks, suddenly looking more concerned.

“Physically, I think he will be just fine,” she says, stuffing the toxicology results into the back of his chart. “We will start some cognitive function testing later today to set a baseline for his short term memory. Hopefully we’ll know more by the end of the day.”

“Thelma, I need to talk to you in private,” a hospital administrator says as she pops her head into Tyler’s room.

Thelma excuses herself and walks with the administrator toward the nurse’s station. A shocked look comes across Thelma’s face as she looks back toward us. They continue to talk in hushed tones, too quiet for us to hear their conversation.

“Tell the detective to make sure the medical examiner does full toxicology, because it could easily have been something that was drug induced,” I can hear her say as she walks back toward the room. She comes through the doorway of Tyler’s room with a disturbed look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, not able to tell whether or not she is going to share it with us.

“When the officers arrived at Dr. Potaturri’s apartment, they found him lying in the middle of the floor. Dead,” she says with wide eyes.

“So do they think he took is own life or somebody killed him?” Mandy asks, as hungry as I am for additional details.

“They aren’t sure yet, but there were no obvious wounds.” She walks over to Tyler’s bed and looks down at him. “I wonder if this has something to do with you?”

“I’m sure it does,” I reply, glancing back at Thelma and my brother. “I’ll stop back after while, but right now I need to go check on something.”

Mandy

Trey sends a text off to Tony telling him we need another ride and grabs my hand leading me to the elevator.

By the look on his face, I can tell that another puzzle piece has just fallen into place for him. Tommy had recommended the doctor, who had subtly been poisoning him ever since and now the doctor was dead. I think back to the night before when Vanessa was screaming at him over the phone. Apparently Tommy felt that the doctor had become more of a liability, rather than an asset.

During the drive over to Victor’s old office, Trey is busy making phone calls to Detective Kelly and others to find the best security service. He wants to make sure that Tyler, Vanessa and his mother have twenty-four hour protection until something breaks with the case.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to confront Tommy right now?” I ask as the limo pulls up to Addison Media.

“I’m not really planning on a confrontation as much as seeing first hand what is going on,” he replies, seemingly lost in thought. “I’ve had a strange feeling ever since I hung up with Becky earlier.”

“Becky who?”

“Dad’s old personal assistant, who now appears to be working for Tommy,” he explains with furrowed brows. “If anyone knows what is going on, it’s probably her.”

I can feel my apprehension rising as the elevator blasts it’s way to the top floor. By the time the doors open, I can feel my heart pounding in my throat. I reach out and squeeze his hand. “Please be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to cause a scene,” he assures me with a wink. Unfortunately, that wink does nothing to reassure me.

“Well hello, Becky!” Trey says after cracking open the door to the executive suite.

“Trey! What are you doing here?” her eyes instantly dilate. I follow Trey into the office where there is a distinct smell of sweat in the air. Obviously there had been a stressful meeting earlier.

“I just wanted to let you know that Tyler came out of his coma earlier,” he replies, walking up to her and giving her a hug. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, I’m just fine,” she replies, running her hands along the sides of her dress nervously. “Who is this?” she asks, looking over at me seeming eager to divert the topic.

“This is Amanda Grayson,” Trey tells her. “I don’t know if you knew her father, Ray?”

“Well of course!” she reaches out to give me a hug. “What in the world are you doing here?”

“We’ve had a little reconciliation between our families,” Trey informs her. “You didn’t happen to see the Times this morning did you?”

“I haven’t, but I definitely heard about it.” Her cheeks flush a bit. “Was that your doing?”

“My attorney’s actually,” he admits. “Mom wasn’t happy with it, but luckily she has been focused on Tyler all day.”

“Well, I am just glad it wasn’t about me.” She pats him on the arm and shakes her head. “Are you here to see Tommy?”

“If he’s not busy,” he replies casually. “Otherwise, it can wait until tomorrow.”

“I’ll let him know you are here,” she says, picking up the phone and calling him.

Within seconds Tommy emerges from his office. “Hey, it’s the dynamic duo! Come on in!” He reaches out to shake Trey’s hand and then proceeds to put his arm around me to personally usher me inside. I’m completely shocked by his chipper demeanor.

“It looks like you must have hit the ground running, huh?” Trey asks as we both look across at the mess of papers on his desk.

“There is a lot going on,” he replies, quickly organizing them into several piles. “Sit down you two, make yourself comfortable. I’m sure it’s a little weird to see someone else in your dad’s office.”

“It’s actually harder than I thought it would be,” Trey replies, slumping into one of the leather chairs. “I always hated coming here. It usually meant that I was in trouble for something.”

By the way he is gripping the arms of the chair, I can tell he’s not feeling the least bit comfortable. My heart is still pounding too, so apparently Tommy is the only one who is calm, cool and collected. He smiles as he takes a chair facing us and asks, “What can I do for you guys?”

Trey

After the way Tommy acted on the phone yesterday, I’m a little surprised to see him acting this way. Poor Becky looked like she was about to jump out of her skin, but he seems like he just got back from a week at the spa.

“How is Liv? Did you guys have fun in Monaco?” I begin the conversation on what I thought would be a benign note.

“Liv? I have no idea,” he replies with his expression growing darker. “She disappeared Saturday evening, so I came back without her.”

“Disappeared?” His words completely shock me. Mandy’s jaw just drops as well.

“Yeah, we were out on the Lady Castillo partying with a bunch of friends and when it came time to go back to the hotel, she was no where to be found,” he says casually.

“Did you report her missing?” Mandy gasps.

“Not until the next day,” he replies with a shrug. “I thought maybe she was shacking up with someone else, but after not being able to reach her all the next day I filled out a missing persons report before flying back.”

“So you came back without her?” I ask in amazement.

“Hey, what was I supposed to do?” He looks at me as if my question is ridiculous.

“Well, hopefully she is okay,” Mandy, adds with an unsettled look crossing her face. “You still haven’t heard from her?”

“Not a word.” Tommy shifts in his chair. “That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about,” he says turning his focus back to me. “Did she ever disappear on you?”

“Only after Dad’s funeral,” I admit. “Mom told her that I was only interested in her because of her looks.”

“It was brutal,” Mandy adds with a cringe.

“She was good looking,” Tommy muses. “Reminded me of Vanessa, but a lot more fun in the sack.”

I throw Mandy a look of disgust. “It just occurred to me that she ended up with you that night.” I shift in my seat deciding to get down to the issues at hand. “What do you know about Dr. Potaturri?”

“Dr. Potaturri?” he asks, seeming to not have a clue.

“He’s the doctor who you told Vanessa could help Tyler,” I tell him bluntly. He knows damn well who I’m talking about.

“Oh, him.” He flinches as if someone just pinched him. “A friend of mine told me he was a pain management specialist, so I thought he might be helpful. How is Tyler doing?”

“He’s doing better now that we switched doctors. He finally came out of his coma,” I inform him, wanting to see his response.

“Oh really?” he replies. “That’s good news. Have you talked with him?”

“A little bit, but he doesn’t know any of us. Dr. Pot did a pretty good job of fucking up his brain.” I fold my arms and glare across the desk at him.

“So he doesn’t remember anything?” He tries to play it cool, but I swear I can see the relief in his eyes.

“No, his short term memory has been wiped but they are hopeful that the long term will come back at some point,” I tell him, hoping that it will keep Tyler off of Tommy’s radar.

“Wow, that’s crazy,” he says lying back in his chair.

“What’s really crazy is that the cops went over to talk to Dr. Potaturri, but they found him dead.” I add, still trying to gauge any change in his demeanor.

“Really?” he asks, leaning off to the side and rubbing his chin with his hand. “Do they have any idea what happened?”

“No, we just heard about it on the way out of the hospital,” I say, letting it go.

“Why did Tyler call you a fraud?” Mandy asks, apparently tiring of my laidback approach. She was the one who had warned me to tread lightly.

“A fraud?” he laughs. “Tyler hates my guts. Especially after he found out that Vanessa and I had dinner while he and Victor were out of town.” He shakes his head, continuing to laugh. “I don’t know why she even told him about that.”

“She probably didn’t want him to find out on his own and think she had something to hide,” Mandy counters, sitting up and taking a more defensive posture.

“Well, there was nothing to hide… not that I didn’t try. She’s still looking good,” he adds with a chuckle.

Tommy’s phone beeps and Becky’s voice comes across the intercom. “Tommy, Carly is on the phone for you.”

“You’ll have to tell her I’ll call her back in a half hour,” he snaps. His demeanor changes so dramatically that I instantly know this is an important bit of information.

“Carly Snow?” I ask, referring to Dad’s former fiancé.

“Yeah, she had a couple questions on something. I haven’t had time to get the answers for her,” he says, picking up a folder and popping out of his chair. “I better go do some research, so I can get back to her. I see it’s already five o’clock.” He proceeds to show us to the door.

“Do you still want to have lunch tomorrow?” I ask on the way out.

“No, I think we’re good. I’ll catch up with you down the road,” he replies, holding out his hand and flashing us a TV smile. “It was wonderful to see you again, Mandy. Have you decided to stay in the city?”

“For now,” Mandy tells him. “Trey needs me.” She jabs me in the ribs and smiles up at me.

“Yeah, she’s a pro at stress relief,” I tease back.

“I’ll be she is,” Tommy sneers. “I could use some stress relief after the day I’ve had.” He moves up along side her and puts his arm around her again.

Mandy

I can’t believe he just did that. What a creep. I simply shake my head as we walk back out into the reception area. Becky pops up from her desk and quickly grabs her purse.

“It’s after five, so I’m going to go down with you,” she tells Trey.

“Great, I haven’t had a chance to catch up with you for a long time,” he replies with a smile. He has wanted to find out if Becky knows anything.

I glance over at Tommy and his expression tells me that he is not happy about this latest development. “I need you to help me with this file,” he says, giving her a glare.

“I have a dentist appointment at 5:30, so can it wait until morning?” she asks.

“Uhmm, I guess,” Tommy mumbles, seeming to be at a loss for words. “Yeah, that’s fine. Go ahead.”