CHAPTER 007

NINA.

That was a brief but tense moment before the man centered his gaze at me again and exchanged another glance with the nurse. "I'll take care of that." He instructed her that he would be out shortly.

The nurse assured him and went out, and he looked back at me with a forced smile that was hopefully meant to ease my nerves.

"Who might that be?" I managed to ask lightly.

The man shrugged. "your sister ... Don't worry about it, honey. I'll handle it."

I nodded, and smiled .

What could she possibly want now , I mean I don't know Laurel's sister and how she behaved toward them? I had to keep the act up that much more, but anxiety was chewing me out badly.

"Well, son," he told our son, "go play in the corner with the toys for a minute while Momma and I talk to this person."

The little boy nodded and took off to play. The man turned to me and looked me in the eye: "I'll be right back."

You just stay here ags rest okay, the man said to me .

I nodded and was doing my best to act weak and frail. The man left, and I sighed with relief. For a moment, it was great, but then I heard him talking to the woman, his voice low but firm. "You have no right to keep her from me!" She yelled angrily down the hall.

"Look, I'm just trying to let Laurel recover," his voice was flat but determined.

Sarah's anger exploded. She whirled around to face Drew. "You're controlling her, Drew. You're manipulating her. I won't let you get away with it.”

"That's enough, Sarah. Laurel needs to rest. She can't take in all this stress," Drew interrupted.

Sarah looked up at me, eyes beseeching.

“How are you Laurel?" she said in a cool voice .

I lay there , confusion filled my face.

“Don't you remember me laurel? We grew up together; we shared a room. You can't just forget everything.”

“I don't know what is talking about honey”, I said to Drew.

"This is not my sister" and "Not the one I know as Laurel," followed by an outstretched hand that she meant to place on my face.

"Hey, come on now," he said, pulling her back with a grip to her wrist. Drew.

"Okay, you know what? To clear my doubt," she said, her eyes never leaving mine. "I'll ask her a question. If she's really Laurel, she'll know the answer."

He still held onto her wrist, but he loosened the grip. "Go ahead," Drew said, entirely neutral.

“What's our favorite childhood vacation spot," she asked, mischief glinting in her eyes.

I was sweating bullets. My mind was racing to come up with an answer. My only problem was that my brain was incapable of supplying any words. Just then, the flicker of a smile brushed lightly on Sarah's face.

"You don't know? Poor creature, you have no idea what I'm talking about?'-the words came out of Sarah's mouth like a heavy accusation and a note of sorrow.

The shaking of my head was negative. While doing so, I felt a shiver of gloomy feeling sweep across me. "I... I don't remember," I said quickly, trying to cover my incomplete response with a feigned memory lapse.

But Sarah would have none of that. "That's because you don't remember," she asserted coolly. "You're not Laurel. You're just an ignoramus. And, more specifically, I want to know who you are and what you did with my sister."

The glimmer of Drew's fun quickly disappeared. He took a step forward, hardly restraining his fury. "That's enough, Sarah," he growled. "You're going to accuse her , this is my wife okay.”

Sarah stared at me and then turned to Drew, I'm so ashamed of you drew that after living with your wife for years you can't really tell when a person is impersonating her”

"I know my sister. And this woman is not her."

"How do you know?" Drew kept his voice low and even.

He looked furiously at Sarah and said, "This is my wife." He came and cradled my body in kind arms to tightly embrace me. Then he bent low to my level and kissed me even before I could figure it out.

For a moment I stood in astonishment, then I acquiesced and hugged that man back. The kiss ended, but not before everyone in the room could feel the tension the moment brought.

Sarah's eyes widened in shock as she stepped back, turning pale. "You expect me to buy this?" she spat with venom before storming away. "After all I've seen, you expect me to take the story about a woman being Laurel?"

Drew almost suffocated me, gazing down at me with the eyes of a protector. "I don't expect you to believe anything," he stated coldly. "But it's true. This is my wife, Laurel. And I'm going to protect her at all costs."

Sarah stared at me angrily, her fists tight. "This isn't the end," she said before she turned and stormed out.