But even now, sitting here, scared out of my mind, my chest burning from all the secrets told—I couldn’t deny that Cooper was a very sexy man.
I twisted the gold band on my left ring finger.
“Lenore,” Cooper leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “What you told me, it’s a lot for anyone.”
“I know, but I can handle it. Really, I just... I need some answers, ya know?”
He nodded. “You deserve them. But before we move on with this, I think you need to realize something.”
The way he said it had me scooting forward in my seat. The first answer felt like it was right there on the tip of his tongue. Or at least something that would send me in the right direction.
“This might be hard to hear.” He put a hand over mine. "But it sounds like you’re in abusive relationship."
My head shot up, jaw slack as I stared at him in utter shock. I jerked my hand away, not wanting the touch. “What? That’s insane. Erik has never—and would never— hurt me.”
“Maybe not physically,” Cooper said. “But you have no memories prior to six months ago, and he won’t give you any details. Don’t you wonder if there’s any other family searching for you?”
“I asked him about that—”
“And he said there is none right?”
“Right...” Hesitation lingered in that one word.
“And you said he doesn’t want you knowing about the past, because he doesn’t want you to dwell on it.” Cooper scooted forward in his seat, looking at me with intense green eyes. “How do you know it’s not because you wanted to leave?”
My heart thudded, faster than it should be able to, against my chest. The thought never crossed my mind. Even now, thinking Erik might not be the man I loved—the man who I thought would stop at nothing to protect me—it made physical pain sear through my mind. I winced, putting a hand to my temple.
“Are you all right?” Cooper put his hand on my arm.
Goosebumps rippled on my skin, and I pulled my arm away.
The pain faded slightly, and I nodded. “Fine. Just this is a lot to take in. And I don’t think you’re right. Erik is too loving, too sweet. He’d never hurt anyone.”
“Hurt comes in many forms.”
“I’m not here to talk about Erik,” I said. “Not intentionally, anyway. I’m here to talk about what happened at the supermarket.”
Cooper leaned back in his seat. It’s true, I had just word vomited everything that had been in my head. And it had been wrong for me to do so. That was clear now. It had given Cooper the wrong impression. I’d only wanted to unload. Vent. Get it all out to someone.
And now Cooper thought Erik might be abusive.
He was wrong.
“Maybe the man wasn’t mistaken,” Cooper said. “Maybe you’re a missing person. Maybe there are people looking for you.”
“He said I was dead.”
Cooper shrugged. “People go missing long enough, or if they find enough evidence, then that can be a natural reaction.”
I shook my head. “No. He did not seem like someone happy to see me alive.”
“Maybe he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t know who you were.”
A knot formed in my stomach. “That’s impossible. I’ve been with Erik forever.”
“But you only remember six months.” He stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankles. “And Erik won’t let you on the computer. He only lets you have a flip phone. And you don’t have any friends.”
I opened my mouth and closed it, uncertain what to say. In many of the books I’d read, women had been in similar circumstances. But that had been fiction. This was actual life. If something had happened to me, wouldn’t it have been reported? Wouldn't I still have a missing persons report?
And wouldn’t I know if I were being abused? Physically or otherwise?
While my brain tried to rationalize and give some coherent truth to the last six months of my life, my fingernails dug into the palm of my hands. At some point I’d balled them into fists.
“Is there a room you’re not allowed to go into?” Cooper asked.
“The basement,” I said. “That’s where I woke up, I think. The first few hours of being back home are sort of like a fog.”
“What do you remember?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, the remnant coffee taste still on the surface. “Metal, I think. Cold. A storm. I may have dreamed it. I’m really not sure.”
Cooper rubbed his jaw again. “Okay, so let’s try this. You said this all happened six months ago? There’s got to be hospital reports. News reports, maybe. Something that might tell us what happened and give you some answers.”
I shook my head. “I’ve checked.”
His brows shot up.
“I uh… sometimes, I take Erik’s phone. To see what I can find out.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lip. “Resourceful.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “Not the point.”
“What is the point?”
“You’re saying I shouldn’t trust Erik?”
Even the thought made me feel sick. If I jumped off a cliff, Erik would be the first one to jump after me. Either to save me or die with me. He doted on me, cuddled on the couch. He’d never lied to me.
A small voice in the back of my head whispered. That I know of.
“I’m saying that if the guy from the market knows you from before the accident, it might shed some light into why he was so intense about it.” Cooper pulled out his phone.
The large screen lit up, like Erik’s with internet access and the capability to do everything by touching the screen or talking to it. And then I wondered why Erik wouldn’t let me have modern accessibility. At first he’d said because he didn’t want me getting curious about the accident. So maybe Cooper was right. Maybe there was something out there about what really happened to me.
And then that betraying feeling came back. Defying Erik,
