Page 50 of Lust & Lies

NOELLE

THE CAR ACCIDENT HAPPENED so fast that I barely had time to react. Before the accident, I was staring out the passenger side window, looking at the black van that had been following us since we turned off the dirt road near the estate and onto the main road.

I’d been nervous about us being tailed. But after we left the hotel site, I saw Aiden check his rearview mirror and knew he’d noticed it too. His lack of concern let me know it had to be someone he knew.

He had someone following us. A protection detail. At first, it angered me, but then I realized I was getting angry about every damn thing, and that was a problem. A protection detail meant Aiden had concerns for our safety, and he took those concerns seriously.

That was nothing to get angry about. Plus, my husband was no ordinary man, no matter how much he pretended to be. He’d proven that today. The smell at that hotel site hadn’t been roadkill.

It definitely hadn’t been the stench of cigarette smoke. The fact that I knew exactly what it was, bothered me. It scared me. But it was time I accepted the fact that I wasn’t ordinary either.

I wasn’t some pretty housewife. I’d never felt like one anyway. Aiden wanted us to be normal, but we weren’t, and I was tired of pretending to be. I needed to trust what I felt, trust my instincts. I felt comfortable in the garden. I could trust that feeling.

I felt comfortable with Aiden, despite the memories that were returning. I wanted to believe I could trust that feeling, too. These feelings of comfort had to count for something. I couldn’t discredit them.

I also knew it would be foolish of me to discredit the darker memories. I’d hoped to have answers today. Unfortunately, life had a way of interrupting plans. These interruptions weren’t Aiden’s fault. Neither was my memory loss.

The problems lie in the bad memories. And Aiden was ready to talk about them with me.

That had to count for something. So, instead of sitting there, staring out the window, all woe is me, I should’ve been listening to music and enjoying the drive with my husband.

I turned in my seat to do just that when a car drifted into our lane without warning.

“Watch out!” I screamed.

Everything happened so fast after that. Aiden jerked the wheel. We skidded across gravel and dirt. Aiden’s arm stretched out in front of me as he slammed on the brakes. My body lurched against the seat belt, the strap biting into my chest.

Then a memory hit me out of nowhere, a sense of déjà vu creeping over me. I closed my eyes against the blinding light. But the light wasn’t in front of me. It was all in my head. The world around me disappeared, and all I could see was that night.

The night of the accident. Bright lights blinded me in the dead of night as a car barreled toward us. It was another one of those dreams that made me feel like I was watching it unfold from the sidelines.

Tires screeched, loud and shrill, cutting through the quiet night. A woman cried out as the car jolted. Was that me screaming like that? I wasn’t sure. My body lurched forward. The seatbelt caught me across the chest.

A man’s arm shot across my vision. I couldn’t see his face, just the way he’d reacted quickly, shielding the woman next to him. Was that me he was protecting? I couldn’t tell. Everything was spinning.

Another smash sounded. Someone had hit us from behind. We swerved off the road. Then the window exploded next to me, glass shattering and raining down on me. I could feel the wind tearing through the space where the glass used to be.

The car spun twice. My stomach twisted as the vehicle flipped, slamming us upside down. Somebody screamed. It could’ve been me. Maybe it wasn’t. I didn’t know. Everything blurred together: the noise, the car flipping, the sting of glass against my skin.

Then I heard a male’s voice shouting, “Noelle, are you okay? Noelle!”

“I’m fine.”

Was that me? Was I the woman speaking or just watching from the back seat? But he’d called her Noelle. I was Noelle. So how was I watching from the backseat when the man was clearly speaking to the woman in the passenger seat?

My head throbbed. This was nothing like the dream when I’d been watching from the sidelines. In that dream, I hadn’t been able to feel any of the emotions past me felt. In this dream, I could.

I lifted my hand to touch the side of my head. Blood. I was bleeding. Wait. I was upside down, and the seat belt was biting into my chest. I stretched my legs out as I unbuckled my seat belt. I needed to get out of the car.

My buckle came undone, and I dropped to the ceiling. Pain ricocheted over my body as I stared up at the floorboards. Yeah, we were upside down. I would have to try to get the door open.

“You okay back there?” the man asked.

He was talking to me now. But he wasn’t calling me Noelle. Was I Noelle? Or was the woman in the front seat Noelle? Who was Noelle?

“She’s fine,” the woman groaned, sounding in pain. “She’s been through worse. We need to get out before they return.”

They? Who were they? A sharp pain sliced through my head, making me dizzy. My eyes closed briefly. I fought to keep them open. I knew I needed to kick the rest of the glass out of the window and climb out.

I could smell gas. We didn’t have much time. But even as I thought that, I couldn’t make my body move. I felt myself being pulled under. However, I could still hear them talking.

“I’ve got you,” the man told her. “Come on. Hold on to me, Ellie.”

“Don’t let me fall,” she croaked.

“I won’t, baby.”

I could hear them moving around. I wanted to ask for help. I couldn’t say anything. Why couldn’t I say anything?

“Do you think Aiden tricked us? Was he behind this?” the man asked.

The woman sighed. “With Aiden, anything is possible. The man is just as cruel as his grandfather,” the woman answered. “I don’t trust him. He wants us dead. But right now he needs us, and as long as he needs us, he won’t...”

I wanted to hear more. Needed to hear more. But my head was hurting so damn badly. And I could feel blood trickling down the side of my face. I lost my battle against the darkness and was pulled under.

I woke in my own bed with light leaking into the room through the open blinds. I stared up at the ceiling, the memory of the accident still lingering in my mind.

“She’s awake,” a man stated.

My eyes widened when Dr. Mercer crouched over me. What the hell? I wasn’t in the hospital? What was he doing here? Movement to his left pulled my gaze in that direction. One of the nurses I’d seen at the hospital was standing beside him.

My gaze scanned the room. I was at the country estate. Aiden must’ve called the doctor and asked him to make a house call. Aiden. Fear threaded through my veins as I replayed the conversation from my memory in my mind.

“Do you think Aiden tricked us? Was he behind this?” the man asked.

“With Aiden, anything is possible. The man is just as cruel as his grandfather,” the woman answered. “I don’t trust him. He wants us dead.”

He wanted us dead. Had Aiden caused my accident? Impossible. He’d stayed by my side the entire time I’d been in the hospital. Or at least, that was what I’d been told... by them. My gaze swept to the doctor who was talking to me.

I wasn’t hearing anything he was saying. I was too busy trying to wrap my head around all the facts. We were at the country estate. Why had Dr. Mercer come way out here for Aiden? Were there no doctors who were closer that could’ve made a house call?

When Dr. Mercer touched my forehead, I swallowed, trying not to recoil. Why had Aiden brought me home instead of taking me to the hospital? Another memory from the accident filtered through my mind.

“I’ve got you,” the man told her. “Come on. Hold on to me, Ellie.”

“Don’t let me fall,” she croaked.

“I won’t, baby.”

Ellie! The man had called the woman Ellie. But he’d also called her Noelle. When he’d referred to me, he’d only said, hey you in the back seat or some shit. But the woman next to him, the woman he’d protected, he’d called her Noelle. Two Noelles. There couldn’t be two Noelles. Could there?

“How are you feeling, Mrs. Park?” Dr. Mercer asked.

Mrs. Park. Noelle Park. Was that me?

“Noelle?” the doctor said.

My gaze snapped to him. “Uh... um. I feel fine.”

I was anything but fine.

He studied me for a while before saying, “Well, I’m not surprised you’re a little shaken up. That had to have been scary. But you don’t have any bruises. I believe you passed out from shock.”

Shock? I wasn’t the type of woman who’d pass out from shock. It was the memory. It had caused my head to hurt so badly that I blacked out. I didn’t want to tell the doctor that, so I said nothing.

“Have you been remembering things?” Dr. Mercer asked.

I tensed, noting the suspicious way he was looking at me.

Forcing a half-smile, I said, “No. Not yet.”

He nodded. “If you remember anything, tell your husband, okay? False memories can occur at any time and...”

“I thought you told me false memories only occurred if I tried to force the memories to return,” I challenged him.

“Well,” he stated, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

I knew a stalling tactic when I saw one.

“That’s one way to get false memories. But they can occur at any time. And they can be confusing and lead to misunderstandings.”

Bullshit!

“That’s why you need to talk about the memories as they come. Tell Aiden, so he can help you figure out what’s real and what’s not.”

Of course, he wanted me to tell Aiden, since he was on Aiden’s side. Speaking of the devil. The door opened, and Aiden walked in. Just from looking at him, I could tell he was tired, drained, and worried.

I blinked back tears. I really wanted him to hug me right now, to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. But I couldn’t ignore the possibility that he was the reason nothing was okay.