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  There was no rushing across the room, grabbing their daughter in an emotional embrace. A few seconds of awkward silence passed and she would have settled for a nod or any form of greeting.

  “Hel—Hello.” Carter pulled her farther into the room.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, I'm happy you received my messages.” Carter stopped at the end of the table, Eve’s hand still tightly in his.

  “What is that you are wearing?” her mother asked. Eve looked down and realized she'd put on her leggings and had Carter's sweatshirt on over her shirt. She'd worn one of his grandfather's old jackets to the beach, but they'd pulled their coats off at the doorway.

  “It's Carter's,” she said absently as she looked between the pair.

  “It's true then?” her father asked. His voice wasn't familiar to her, nor was her mother's, as she'd hoped they’d be. After all, there must have been some time when she'd been a child that he'd read to her, comforted her when she'd been ill or had fallen. But when they spoke, there wasn't a hit of familiarity in their tones.

  “What?” She sat when Carter pulled out a chair for her. Her parents sat again and resumed drinking their coffee. She watched Carter walk into the kitchen and pull out two more cups for them. Then she turned back towards her parents.

  “That you don't remember anything?” her mother added.

  Eve nodded her head in agreement. “Yes.”

  Her father sighed. “I suppose you'll need to come home with us.”

  It sounded to her like she'd be putting them out, like she was going to be a burden to them.

  She shook her head. “No.” The thought of going with this couple scared her. She couldn't explain it, but her hands started to shake and her palms got sweaty. “I'm not going anywhere. I'm where I need to be.”

  “Well, honey, I don't think you're in your right mind to make that decision,” her mother said in a sweet tone. “I think your father knows what's best. If he says you'll need to come home with us, then you and I will need to go upstairs and pack your belongings.” Her mother started to get up.

  “I'm not going anywhere,” Eve said.

  Her father slammed his fist down on the table. “I thought you'd gotten rid of that attitude when you lost your memory. Now I see it's embedding things in that skull of yours. You will do exactly what we say this time around. These people have corrupted you far too much. It's high time we took you in hand and straightened you out.”

  Eve stood, her hands fisted on the table, and said in the calmest voice she could muster. “Since I woke up over four weeks ago, I've been treated with the utmost kindness. I've been taken in by people I deemed to be strangers. People not related to me who've shown me such kindness, that there was no doubt as to their intentions. Four weeks I've sat here waiting for my family to come and show me some of the same. Now you're standing here in my kitchen, dictating what I must do.” She felt herself vibrating with anger. “I see no concern for my health in your eyes or in the way you talk to me. And you have the gall to stand there and tell me what to do.” She shook her head. “Out. I want you out of my house, both of you. And until you decide you want to be my parents and not just in control, you can stay gone. I know who my family is, and none of them are blood related.” She turned and walked out of the room without another word.

  She grabbed the jacket from the rack as she walked out the back door. She didn't know where she was heading, just that she needed the cold air on her face. When she hit the beach, she turned and continued to walk at a brisk pace. Her eyesight blurred as tears streamed down her face.

  Carter had warned her, he'd told her that she wasn't close to her parents. She should have expected something like this, but in her mind, she kept playing fairytale scenes of her mother and father coming in, engulfing her in their arms as they cried for her lost memories.

  Now she was the one left crying. When she'd walked farther then she'd ever gone, she stopped and wiped her face. Her vision was blurry and her head was pounding. The weather had held, but the breeze was cold as it came off the sound. She looked around and took several large breaths. How could she have gotten her hopes up so much?

  Had they always been like that? No wonder she'd bonded with two boys from school. No wonder she'd adopted someone else's family as her own.

  She stood there, her arms crossed over her chest for warmth, enjoying the cold breeze when she heard a noise behind her. Turning, she thought maybe Carter had followed her to the beach, but looking around she didn't see anyone. Her vision was blurry and she could barely make out the tree line. Maybe he was there, coming towards her, but she just wasn't able to see him.

  Using the jacket arms, she wiped her eyes, trying to see. She heard a branch break and looked up again. This time, she could see movement, but her eyes were still so out of focus she couldn't make out the form. Was it her father that had followed her?

  “Hello?” she called out and waited for a response. The howling of the breeze was at her back, but she listened for anything, anyone calling back to her. “Carter?” She waited and heard another snap of a branch, then the dark figure started moving slowly towards her. Taking a step back, she watched as a dark blurry figure appeared from the edge of the trees, less than a yard from her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Carter paced up and down the front porch. “Stupid!” He barked. “How stupid am I to let her run off like that? Doesn’t she know better than to take off?” He stopped and looked across the snow-covered ground of the front yard. He'd tried to follow her footprints in the snow, but when he’d arrived at the beach, it had been empty so he'd returned home. Now, panic set in and he looked down at his cell phone for the hundredth time since she'd disappeared. Should he call the police?

  What if she got lost? What if she had another episode? He stormed down the front porch just as she came bolting from the trees, fear on her face.

  He caught her when she launched herself into his arms. “Eve?” He ran his hands down her hair and just held onto her. All thoughts of scolding her about running off flew from his mind. “What is it?”

  He looked around, towards the woods where she'd come from, looking for anything.

  “There was someone. On the beach.” She said into his chest.

  He felt like laughing. “It is a public beach. There are a few other houses around here. Maybe someone else went for a walk.” He kissed the top of her head as she shook her head.

  “No, they stood just out of my sight and watched me. He was breaking the branches on purpose, making that sound because he knew I couldn't see him.”

  He tensed, then pulled her face up towards his. He could see the headache and tell her vision was almost gone. “How bad?” He asked.

  She shook her head, again. “I'm fine.”

  “No, you're not. How bad?”

  She pulled back and rubbed her temples. “Bad. I was crying and I think it triggered a migraine, like the first few days.”

  He gathered her up and started walking towards the house. “You have a few pills left. I'll heat some clam chowder up and you'll rest.

  “Carter,” she said when they were back inside and he'd set her on the couch and tucked her under the large knit blanket. “There really was someone watching me.”

  “You're safe here.” He leaned down and kissed here. “Your parents have gone. No one is going to make you do anything you don't want to.” He smiled and started to walk from the room, turning the light down as he walked out. He turned to watch her rest her head back against the couch pillow.

  He walked into the kitchen and pulled out the Tupperware with the leftover clam chowder he'd made last week. As he heated it up, he went to all the doors and windows on the main floor and made sure they were locked.

  He didn't doubt that she'd seen someone, but felt that it had probably been one of their neighbors. Their neighbors. He liked the sound of that. When she'd stood up to her parents, she'd called the place her house. He liked the sound of that, too. As far as he was concerned, it belonged to
all of three of them: Mitch, Eve, and him. Really, it was the only true home any of them had ever known.

  He walked back into the living room with a tray of hot soup, a glass of water, and her pills and watched as she ate the entire bowl while he downed his own. Then she took her pills and rested her head back.

  “Have they always been like that?” She kept her eyes closed and he knew she was fighting the migraine.

  “Yes. Our senior year they accused Mitch and me of sexually molesting you. They thought of our family here as a cult. They thought we'd brainwashed you. They even tried to file a lawsuit to keep you away from here.”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. “What happened?”

  He chuckled, remembering how determined she was in her youth. “You ran away and ended up here, of course. My grandfather threatened to sue your parents for slander. After all, that's what he'd done for a living. He was one of Maine's finest attorneys.” He chuckled. “That's the last time you lived with them. You stayed here until you graduated school, then went off to college with the rest of us.”

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. “Thank you, Carter.”

  “For what?” He ran her hair through his fingers.

  “For being my family.” She leaned over and rested her head on his chest and fell asleep.

  He sat there, watching the fire die, listening to her steady breathing as he thought about their future.

  The next morning he called Mitch. He'd been in contact with him a few times during the hiatus, but he knew it was time he made a visit. Mitch and Sandi were heading up there this weekend to see them, to be there for Eve.

  He busied himself with cleaning the place, finishing the office and keeping Eve happy and entertained. Her headache stuck around for two days, during which time he would barely allow her off the couch. Even watching TV ended up being too much for her, so he'd talk to her, tell her stories like he used to do when the three of them had been a team.

  She'd told him that when he talked to her, it helped soothe the pain. So he told her all the stories his grandpa and uncles used to tell him. Even some that he and Mitch had made up as kids, scary stories that they would tell each other during sleepovers.

  He left her alone only once after that day, when he'd driven into town to get some supplies. He didn't want to take her because she was still having some vision problems. When he returned home, every light in the place was on as he drove up. He knew something was wrong. Since her parents’ visit, her eyes had been very sensitive to light and he'd kept all the lights on dim or off during the day. He jumped from the car and raced to the door.

  Eve watched Carter drive away down the bumpy lane and wished her head didn't hurt so much so she could go with him. Even though he was just going into the local store to get supplies, it was getting out, doing something. It had been almost a week since she'd left the place. Not that she was complaining; he'd done a wonderful job of keeping her entertained when she wasn't feeling well. She stood by the window in the darkened room and watched as snow started to fall again. Her vision was still so bad that all she could really make out were white specks floating down. She found it quite beautiful to watch. Turning away, she decided a hot bath would help her relax and maybe she could convince her body and her eyes to work properly again.

  The water and jets felt great and did a good job relaxing her, but when she walked out of the restroom, there on the bed was a red rose, its petals ripped from the bud and thrown across the white comforter, looking a lot like blood. The stem was left twisted and looked like a dead limb as it lay next to the petals.

  “Carter?” She walked to the bedroom door and called downstairs. Why would he leave the stem there? Was he trying to be romantic? When she got no reply, she walked to the window and looked out towards the parking area. His car wasn't there. Her breath started to hitch and she turned back towards the door when she heard a floorboard creak outside her door. “Carter?” She gripped the windowsill with both hands, leaning against the cool glass.

  She heard the stairs creak and rushed to the hallway to look over the railing. A dark figure rushed from the bottom step as she leaned over to look down. She rushed back to her room and was about to slam the door shut and lock it when she heard the front door slam. Rushing to the window, she watched the figure rush past the woodpile and into the trees. Just as he approached the trees, he stopped and looked back. She blinked a few times, trying to convince her eyes to work so she could make out a face, but it was too far away and her eyesight hadn't returned to normal.

  Then the figure dodged into the trees and she rushed downstairs and locked the doors, turning on every light in the house as she went. She grabbed the fireplace poker, the only weapon she could think of and sat at the kitchen door, waiting for Carter to return.

  What seemed to her like hours later, Carter's face appeared on the other side of the kitchen door. He tried the handle and she rushed forward to unlock the deadbolt. When she threw open the door, she threw herself at him, fireplace poker and all.

  It took half an hour for the local police to come out and remove the flower petals as evidence. They checked the trees around the house, and upon finding nothing but some muddy footprints that could belong to anyone, they left.

  Carter sat across from her at the table as they ate cold turkey sandwiches. She could have sworn he was mad, but when she asked, he would mumble that he was deep in thought. That night they slept on the couch, falling asleep to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, one of Carter’s favorite movies. She just couldn't bring herself to sleep on the bed knowing that someone had touched it, had been in that room. At least not yet, anyway.

  The next day, Sandi and Mitch arrived and upon seeing them, her headache disappeared completely. She hugged Mitch like she meant it this time, instead of as if he was a stranger. She'd seen the pictures, and after meeting her parents, knew that pictures and her life couldn't lie. Mitch had been like her brother and she needed to treat him like family.

  He hugged her back and kissed her forehead. She felt warm and knew she was loved. Sandi cried a little when she saw her.

  “I'm so happy that you're doing better. We've been wanting to come up sooner.” She looked over at Carter.

  Eve turned to Carter. “Carter?”

  “I thought you needed the rest.” He smiled and put an arm around her.

  “It's okay, really. We've been so busy with work and planning the wedding.” Sandi took her arm and walked her into the living room.

  Eve remembered Carter telling her that Sandi and Mitch had stayed here last year. Sandi looked comfortable in the house.

  “Oh, you got a new couch?” Sandi frowned a little.

  “No,” Eve looked across the room. “We had it reupholstered. Same couch, new look.”

  “Oh, good. I've never sat or slept on a more comfortable couch.” Sandi walked over and sighed as she sat on the large cushions. “Yes, same couch.” She patted the cushion next to her. “Come, I'll tell you everything you've missed while you've been away.”

  That night, Eve and Carter slept in his room down the hall and gave Sandi and Mitch the master bedroom. Carter had made lasagna for dinner and Sandi had helped by making an Indian side dish that was hot and spicy. Eve found she not only like it, she knew without a doubt that she loved Indian food. Sandi promised to show her how to cook when she came back to the city.

  “I like Sandi,” Eve said against Carter's chest as they lay in the bed looking up at the ceiling. “Were we friends before?”

  “Hmm,” Carter said. “Yes, actually, she was a client to you before. You knew her as Samantha Rain, the pseudonym she used to hide from her family.”

  Something flashed in Eve's mind. This time there was no pain, no blacking out. She saw with clarity Sandi, with longer hair, sitting across from her at a table, laughing. She was showing her a painting of red flowers with white circles behind them. Then the memory was gone.

  Eve sat up and looked down at Carter. “I just ha
d a memory.”

  He sat up quickly, grabbing hold of her. “How's your head? Do you feel dizzy?” He started to hold her.

  “No, I'm fine. No sharp pain, no blurry vision, nothing.” She smiled. “I remembered Sandi when you mentioned the name Samantha Rain.” She blinked a few times. “I remember meeting her at a cafe. I think it was called Hell’s Kitchen Cafe. Oh my God! I remember something else. A couple months ago I swore off eating meat.” She glared at him. “I told you this. I told you I was becoming a vegetarian and you’ve fed me meat this whole time.” She slapped his shoulder as he laughed and she thought about how she'd get back at him later.

  “We never thought you'd stick to it. It did last a couple months, though.” He pulled her back into his arms. “I'm happy you're starting to remember. I think having your family near you is helping.”

  She was still steaming about him breaking her diet, but his arms felt too wonderful to be mad for long. She melted back into his arms and enjoyed the rest of the night.