CHAPTER 14
KATE
I always hated the hospital. Or at least, I got the feeling that I had. It was a depressing and oppressing atmosphere for anyone that had to step through its doors. It began with the cold, isolating color that all hospitals featured: white. White walls, white floors, and white ceilings. It seemed to be a metaphor for the death found throughout the building.
And that was the second reason I hated hospitals. Death and decay hung around the place. They could be felt in every room and every hallway. It could be sensed in the way the people in the hospitals talked and acted. It seemed to latch onto them and suck the good feelings right from their souls.
There was nothing enjoyable about the hospital. I hated it here, and thus, I was not happy about the fact that I was meeting Liam in one. If it wasn't for the fact that it was Liam, I would have waited outside in the parking garage. I would have called and demanded that he come outside to meet me as there was no way that I was going inside.
But it was Liam, and I felt the odd urge to please him. Even if it meant braving one of the places I hated the most.
But more frustrating than that, now that I was in the hospital, I was having the hardest time finding him. When I entered the building, I headed straight for reception, asking him to be called. But they couldn't get through to him and suggested that I might do better to walk around. I'd most likely bump into him that way. With a little reservation, I opted to do just that, wishing immediately that I hadn't.
Ten minutes in and I was all but ready to turn around and leave. He could come and find me. But then I spotted Sandra, the nurse. Sandra had helped look after me the few days that I was in the hospital, and she had always seemed really nice. Especially considering how some of the other nurses acted.
"Sandra, hey!" I called out to her as I hurried down the hallway.
Hearing her name, she stopped and turned, beaming when she spotted me. "Kate, how are you?" She powered toward me, pulling me into a hug. I was surprised by this but found it oddly welcoming. It did much to distract me from my current location.
"I'm okay. Just looking for Dr. Morgan. Liam. You haven't seen him, have you?"
"No, not at all today I'm afraid," she responded, biting her lip.
It was odd, but in that moment, I suddenly noticed how attractive Sandra was. She had beautiful red hair and the most stunning white porcelain skin. She also had a body in stark contrast to mine, curvy in all the right places. It was stupid, but for a moment, I actually felt a slight stab of jealousy at the thought that she got to spend all day with Liam.
"That's fine," I said, pushing those silly thoughts away. "But if you do see him can you let him know that—"
"Hey. Now that you are here, though, I've got something to show you. Well, not show you, but, well, he's been asking for you all morning."
"Who?" I asked, having no idea what the hell she was talking about.
"Danny. Your friend."
"My what now?" I asked again, getting a little miffed that she was being so coy. I did have amnesia after all.
"Oh my god!" she screamed, slapping me on the arm. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot that you wouldn't remember. Danny was the man driving the car that you crashed in. He's awake, and he's been asking for you."
"Oh," I didn’t know what else to say. I was caught between both excitement and nervousness. On the one hand, there was a chance that this guy could tell me more about myself and what I was doing with him in the car. On the other hand, though, that might not be the information that I wanted to hear.
But before I had a chance to object, Sandra took me by the hand and led me toward the ICU. In the end, I decided that it was actually a good thing. I was going to have to face him eventually. It might as well be now.
He looked about the same as when I had seen him the first time. Although he had fewer bandages on, his skin was still swollen and purple. Both his arms were also broken, as was one of his legs. But his eyes popped open with excitement when he saw me coming, and he even smiled, despite the difficulty it looked like it was causing him.
"Hey, sweet cheeks," he said as I walked to his bedside. "You look good. Well, better than me, anyway."
"Hey," I said nervously. The moment that I was by his side, Sandra left the two of us alone. It was an act that I was grateful for. I had no idea how this conversation was going to play out, and I really didn't need the audience.
"That's all you have for me? No, how are you? Or how you feeling?" He joked. As he did though, he began coughing violently. It clearly hurt.
"I don't know what else to say,” I answered. “I don't even know who you are."
"Ah yeah, the amnesia," he said. "That's a big one. Well here, let me help you out. My name is Danny Diamond, and the two of us are dating. How's that sound?"
"Dating?" Honestly, that sounded awful. When he told me his name, I internally prayed that he was just an Uber driver giving me a lift. His name seemed to speak volumes about the kind of guy that he was. But now that he confirmed that we were dating, I felt sick.
"How did you get so lucky?" he joked again. “I know, right?” His words resulted in another fit of coughing.
"Dating?" I managed, trying not to let the disappointment come through in my voice. "How long have we been—"
"Well, we're not dating, per se. Just lovers. Regular, run of the mill lovers. Oh, and you work for me, too."
"I do? Doing what?"
"Jesus, that memory really has gone to shit. You're one of my waitresses at the club. But recently, you came to me, asking for more lucrative opportunities. I run a little escort business on the side. You wanted to be a part of that. You called it, trading up."
That sick feeling in my stomach was only getting worse. With every word he spoke, I felt my stomach dropping out from under me. Not only was I sleeping with this man, but I was looking to get more money from him by working as an escort? It was disgusting. I was basically a whore. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. How could this have been me? How could this have been my old life? Even with my memories gone, I felt sure that I would never do something like that. But I couldn’t deny what this man was telling me, could I?
"And I asked you to do that?” I asked, again trying to keep the bile from coming off my tongue.
"Are you kidding? You practically begged me. You got down on your knees and everything. I was taking you to your first job when we got into that accident. And we were discussing some other business ventures. But listen. I do feel I should say sorry for what happened. It wasn't my intention. If it makes you feel any better though, I'm pissing into a tube right now. So, I think I got the short end of the stick."
"What other business ventures?" I asked. I ignored his other comments about us being even. It was because of him that I had no memory. I didn't give a fig if he had to piss into a tube. Let him.
"It's about my... is this really the place?" he asked, his eyes darting around the busy room. The place was packed, but no one was paying us any attention. And besides, I wanted to hear what he had to say. I needed to hear.
"Speak."
"Fine. Look, you've been to your place, haven't you? You probably wonder how you been affording such a luxurious spot. Well, it wasn't on just your waitress salary and tips, believe me. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’ve been paying your rent the last few months. But now I need the money back. Well, actually, last month I needed the money back. But now considering everything that—"
"Kate! What are you doing?"
At the sound of my name, I spun around to see Liam rushing toward me. He looked terrified at the sight of me. As if he could not believe that I was there.
"Oh great, Doc!" Danny said when he spotted him. "It's about time you got her down here."
"What do you mean got me down here?" I asked, not sure what Danny was talking about.
"Don't worry about that, Kate,” Liam said. “Let's get out of here so we can—"
"I've been asking to see you for hours,” Danny interjected. “They said you were on your way, but you never came. Honestly, I was surprised when you did turn up."
One look at the guilty expression on Liam's face confirmed this sentiment. "How long has he been awake for?" I asked, trying to control the temper that was slowly boiling inside of me.
"Not that long," he said.
"How long!" I screamed. I hadn't meant to scream so loudly, but for some reason, I was suddenly furious.
"All morning," he relented, letting off a sigh. "That was the reason that I left your place this morning. To come and see him."
"Her place?" Danny asked. "What the hell were you doing at her place?"
"And why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my voice trembling as I ignored Danny. I didn't care about Danny or the fact that we were lovers and I had just been revealed as cheating on him. All I cared about was Liam and why he had lied to me.
"Because I didn't want you to get too excited–listen will you?" He cut in before I had a chance to interject. "Amnesia is a very complex problem. If we offload too much information on you at once, then there is no telling what might happen, or how you might react. I wanted to come in here and see what he had to say before I let you talk to him."
"Yeah, like find out how to steal my girl," Danny said angrily.
Again, I ignored Danny. He was a rodent as far as I was concerned. My biggest concern was with Liam, who had been and was still lying to me. It was obvious from his body language and the way that he refused to meet my eyes that I wasn't getting the full story.
"That it?" I asked calmly. "That's the whole truth?"
"All of it," he confirmed, looking relieved at the thought that I was believing his lie. Of course, I wasn’t though. Not by a long shot. "Now, how about we go get some lunch and–hey! Where are you going?"
I didn't let him finish, and I certainly wasn't going to be having lunch with him. All lunch would do is give him a chance to double down on the lie and leave me more confused than ever. I had so many things to be mad about that I didn't know where to start.
First, the man that was the only link I had to my past turned out to be a total douche bag. From what he said, he had all but pimped me out. Apparently, I owed him money, and I thought the only way to pay him back was to whore myself like some gutter trash. The only reason I hadn’t gone through with it was the car crash. Thank god, for that.
And he claimed we were dating, but obviously, he only wanted to use me as a means to make cash. It made me feel dirty and confirmed the suspicions that I had about my life before the amnesia.
And then there was Liam. He was my ticket out of that crappy life. He was my light at the end of the tunnel. But now it seemed that he was just as bad. He was lying to me, and I didn't know why. But it didn't even matter really. A lie was a lie, and if he couldn't be trusted, then who could be? I wanted to believe him, but I didn't know if I should. For all I knew, he and Danny were working together, and I was being played for a fool.
I stormed from the cold, isolating enclosure of the hospital, my face running red and my blood boiling. Like when I had woken up a few days ago, I was totally alone. And like that time, I didn't see any way out of it.