Chapter 6 The Forgotten Past

Claire.

The man who said “Let her go” was Victor.

I froze. My heart stopped for a second. I hadn’t seen him since that day he told me to disappear. Now he was standing here. “Uncle Victor…”

The loan shark let go of my arm and turned. “Who the hell are you?”

Victor pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

He started dialling. One of the men moved fast. He grabbed the heavy metal plaque from the counter and swung it hard at Victor’s head.

I screamed.

Victor’s phone fell from his hand and hit the floor with a loud crack. He fell, too. Blood poured out from the side of his head.

One of the men screamed, “Boss, that’s Victor Cavendish! You just killed him!”

The men got scared. They ran out fast, leaving the door swinging behind them.

Dad and I rushed to Victor at the same time. I dropped to my knees and lifted his head carefully. There was so much blood. My hands were shaking. Dad was already on the phone calling 911.

“Victor… please wake up,” I whispered. “Please.”

I remembered something then. Victor and Bonnie had only gone to one hospital. Doctor Richard had been the one treating Victor’s headaches and his condition, too. I knew the hospital.

“Dad, call an ambulance but tell them to take him to The Oasis private hospital. Victor has a condition, and only Doctor Richard knows his case.”

Dad looked at me while he was on the phone. “How do you know all that?”

I shook my head. “This is not the time for that. I know the hospital. That’s what matters.”

Dad looked at me for a moment longer. Then he nodded and spoke into the phone. "The Oasis Private Hospital. Yes. We have a head injury. Severe bleeding."

I held Victor’s head in my lap and begged him. “I stayed away, just like you wanted. Why did you come here? Why on a day like this? I already have Bonnie’s guilt. I can’t add this one, too. Please wake up…”

The ambulance came fast. They carried Victor in. Dad and I followed in our car. The whole ride I kept thinking about how this was my fault again. Another person I cared about hurt because of me.

At the hospital, they took him straight to surgery. Dad and I waited in the hallway. I called Victor’s office and told them what had happened. Tyler arrived shortly running out of breathe and his face was so pale.

"What happened?" he asked. "Is he okay? Where is he?"

I told him everything. The loan sharks, the head injury, and the ongoing surgery. When I was done, he sat down and put his head in his hands.

We waited for hours and i couldn’t sit still. I kept walking up and down the hall. Dad tried to calm me down, but I was too scared.

Tyler watched me. "Claire, you need to relax.

I know Victor. He'll pull through. Since we were kids, I've always known him to be a tough one."

I kept pacing.

"He's going to be fine," Tyler said. "Sit down while I go get you some water."

I nodded. "Okay."

Tyler stood up and walked away.

I sat down next to Dad. My legs were shaking.

"Claire," Dad said. "You need to breathe."

I tried. I really tried.

Then the doctor came out. "He's awake," he said. "You can see him now."

I stood up. Dad stood up. Tyler was still gone. It was just us.

I was so scared that Victor would scream at me to get out. The last time I saw Victor, he had told me he hated me. I could still remember the rage in his eyes that day.

What if he did it again? What if he screamed at me in the hospital room? Dad put a hand on my shoulder. "Come on," he said softly. "He's waiting."

I walked slowly down the hallway and finally stood in the doorway. Victor was sitting up in the bed with a bandage around his head. He looked tired, but his eyes were open

I waited for the screaming and the rage. I waited for him to tell me to get out. But It didn't come. Victor looked at me. Then he looked at Dad. Then he looked at the doctor.

"Who is she?" Victor asked.

I blinked. "What?" His eyes searched my face, but there was nothing there. No recognition. No anger. No hate. Just... nothing. I couldn’t understand. “You don’t remember me?”

The doctor stepped in. He spoke gently. “Mr. Cavendish is suffering from trauma-induced dissociative amnesia, made worse by a pre-existing condition we’ve been treating him for since his sister’s death five years ago. The extreme emotional pain from that loss caused his brain to suppress certain memories as a protective mechanism. The head injury from the accident has triggered a more severe dissociative episode. Right now, his mind seems to have shut out the painful parts of his past. We don't know how much he'll remember or when those memories will return. We can’t force it. The brain protects itself from what it finds too painful to remember.”

I felt like the floor had dropped out from under me. Victor had lost his memories. He doesn't know who I was. He doesn't remember the hate. He doesn't remember Bonnie’s death.

The doctor smiled at me. “I figured you are his girlfriend because earlier today, I called to make sure he was taking his medications as prescribed, and he told me he was proposing today.”

“Girlfriend?” I blinked.