He placed a tray of food on the table and then sat. Dana quietly observed him as he opened a small box of milk and poured it over his cereal.
He glanced at her plate and then back up at her as he stirred a packet of sugar into the bowl.
“Why are you eating hospital food? Aren’t you staying at the Waldorf? The food there must be a great deal better.”
She shrugged. “My appetite left me two weeks ago and it hasn’t returned. Everything tastes like cardboard anyway. Tell me something, Marc.”
They’d become quite close in the last couple weeks. He had graduated from Dr. Dubel to Marc because Dana spent so much time with him. She was always seeking his advice.
“Anything.”
“In your experience do people with amnesia ever fully regain their memories?”
He laid down his spoon.
“There are two types of amnesia that result from a traumatic brain injury; anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is a loss of memory that occurs shortly after the injury while long-term memory remains intact. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory formed before the injury. Now, with anterograde amnesia memories are never regained, possibly because they were not encoded correctly in the first place. With retrograde, though, the amnesia is hardly ever permanent.”
Dana nodded. “So, what you’re saying is that anything that Robert experienced shortly before the accident, as well as other longer-term memories, is likely to return but anything that happened soon after the accident, like waking from the surgery, might be lost to him forever.”
“That’s right.”
“How long does the retrograde amnesia typically last?”
“That varies patient to patient but studies have shown that in nearly half of the cases the amnesia lasts for at least a month.”
She was silent for a while as she digested this information. Eventually, she asked, “Have you ever had a case where a decade of a person’s life had been erased? Do you know if they were able to fully regain all of their memories?”
“Me, personally? No. But such cases are well documented. Do you have a notepad or piece of paper I want to show you what happened.”
Dana rifled through her bag and found a piece of folded paper which was blank on one side.
“You can use this,” she said, handing it over.
Marc fished a pen out of his jacket pocket. Dana watched him as he quickly sketched a brain. He then shaded an area and slid the paper across the table so she could have a better view.
“The area of Robert’s brain that suffered damage was this left area right here. It’s called the temporal lobe. This area is most closely associated with episodic memory.”
“What’s that?” Dana asked with her head bent over the drawing.
“It’s our memory of experiences or specific events. It’s like an autobiography of a person’s life. Things like times, places, associated emotions are part of the memory. It’s different from semantic memory which is just the knowledge of facts, meanings and knowledge of the world that we may have acquired over time. For example, Robert has demonstrated that he knows who all the presidents were including the present one, yet he doesn’t recall your wedding day. He knows how to use your smartphone, the bathroom, groom himself and perform other routine tasks but he doesn’t remember your first kiss, the birth of your kids. Stuff like that.”
Dana winced as pain shot through her heart. She tried to stay focused. “You haven’t actually answered my question, though.”
“Which one?”
“Did these people with significant amnesia fully regain their memories?”
“Not…entirely.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“I’m sorry. I just want to be upfront with you. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be hopeful. Anything is possible. The human brain is very complex.”
“God can do anything. I have to trust God to help Robert,” Dana said softly.
~*~*~*~
One Week Later
Robert Cortelli sat up in his hospital bed and looked out the window. It overlooked a park with a beautiful lake. Even though it was winter, the lake was not frozen over. There was snow on the ground, though. Grand trees draped in snow graced the landscape as children threw snowballs at each other while lovers strolled hand in hand. The scene was tranquil and relaxing.
A smile came to his face as he remembered his first visit to Switzerland as a young boy. The Cortellis had rented a ski lodge for the Christmas holidays. It was the first time his dad hadn’t returned home to Naples for Christmas. It had been glorious as he and his brothers had bet against each other who would master the slopes by the end of the trip. Of course, ultra-competitive as he was, Robert had won the bet.
Now, here he was. It was the place of some of his fondest memories, and yet, it seemed like he could remember very little about why he was there now. According to what he’d been told, he’d been involved in an accident during the making of his new film and had to undergo brain surgery. Based on the information, three weeks had passed. He didn’t doubt this was true. It was just that he couldn’t remember everything clearly, especially those first few days. They were a blur. He had been mostly in and out of sleep.
He remembered medical personnel coming in to question him and perform all sorts of tests. As the days wore on, the number of medical staff seemed to decrease and the visits from the stunning blonde, Dana, seemed to increase. He had been a little loopy from the medication and didn’t remember everything they’d talked about. In fact, he’d had the attention span of a goldfish. He would begin a sentence and then his mind would drift off. One thing he remembered was her beautiful, if sad, eyes and how nice she smelled.
He knew his parents had visited. He had asked for them for days and they had finally come. They hadn’t stayed long; only a few days and then had returned home the previous day. The doctor had assured him that he would soon be following them.
Hearing from his brothers and close friends on the phone, like Corey, Brian, and Matt also had been a relief.
He was having a good day today. For the first time in a long time, he felt truly alert. He had begun to ponder some things and had come to the conclusion that a few things were not right.
It began with the fact that he apparently had experienced considerable memory loss. He couldn’t remember anything about the movie he was told he had been shooting at the time of the accident. He didn’t even recall traveling to Switzerland to shoot the film. Neither did he recall certain people, like Dana Dickson.
It seemed as though she visited him every day. At least, she was there most times when he was awake. He was curious to find out why – not that he was complaining. What man wouldn’t want to have a gorgeous woman by his bedside while recuperating from surgery?
He’d asked her why she was there. She’d told him that she was a friend. He’d accepted that then but the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t believe it. There was no way he could be in any kind of relationship with a woman who looked like her and not remember. His intention was to get to the bottom of it today.
~*~*~*~
“You’re being released at the end of the week,” Dana said as she sat beside Robert on the two-seater sofa in his private room.
Robert nodded slowly and rubbed his clean-shaven jaw.
“That’s another…” he did a mental calculation, “…five days. So I can go back to L.A.”
“Yes,” she answered him with a tender smile.
He felt his heart contract unexpectedly.
“Why didn’t Dr. Dubel tell me this himself?” he asked as he fidgeted with the button on his pajama shirt.
“What do you mean?”
“Why’d he ask you to deliver that news to me?”
She shrugged. “Why not me?”
“Who are you, really? I don’t remember you…but you seem to know a lot about me.”
She sighed heavily and looked down at her hands. They were smooth, beautiful hands he noted. He had a s
trange desire to take them in his own.
“Robert, there’s something you need to know, something that I’ve wanted to tell you for a while.”
He watched her face intently.
“Robert, you’re married.”
His head snapped back as shock instantly reverberated through every pore in his body.
“I’m married?!” he eventually croaked.
The last memory he had was of breaking up with Liselle Adams, the actress who had been his co-star in Don Juan. Soon after the movie had ended and they had returned to the real world things had started to become impossible with the woman. She didn’t seem to want him to leave her sight. Of course, that couldn’t work. He was busy promoting his career and she couldn’t seem to get that. He had never been one to rest on his laurels. Sure, he had been doing very well but he had no intention of being a one-hit wonder. She started complaining that he was ignoring her, didn’t have time for her. Very shortly, he’d had enough. Their whirlwind romance was soon gone with the wind. Was it possible they had gotten back together and gotten married?
“I’m married to Liselle?”
“Who? What? No!”
“Then, who?”
“Me…we’re married.”
He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. His brain was trying to process that simple phrase but he was having a difficult time.
“Wh…what!”
“Yes. We’re married.”
“How? When?” he sputtered.
Liselle he could understand. But her? He didn’t even know the woman! He had no memory of having even met her. How could he be married to her?
“We’ve been married for almost eleven years.”
“El…el…eleven years! Are you trying to tell me…I’ve forgotten the last eleven years of my life?” he gasped.
He felt panicked. He felt like he was drowning. He leaped from the couch and shuffled back a step.
“Is this some kind of…practical joke? Am I…am I on one of those candid camera shows? Hey…did somebody put you up to this?” He began to look around the room frantically.
She stood up and grasped his arm.
“Bobby, you need to calm down.”
He jerked away from her.
“No! Don’t…touch me. I don’t know you.”
He stumbled to the door like a drunk. He entered the lobby where the doctor was conversing with another man.
“Doctor!”
Robert heard the hysteria in his own voice and deliberately swallowed. No, he couldn’t lose control. That would be just what she’d want.
“Doctor!” he hollered with slightly more control.
Dr. Dubel hurried over and put out a hand to steady him.
“Robert, what’s going on?”
Dr. Dubel looked past him and nodded to someone. Robert craned his neck around to follow his gaze. He saw an orderly and a male nurse coming towards them.
“Robert, calm down. It’s okay.”
“Dr. Dubel. Do you know what she…Dana…just told me? She said she’s my wife…that we’ve been married for eleven years.”
He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
“She’s crazy. I don’t know who she is. You need to keep her away from me. I don’t know what she told you…but she’s…she’s not my wife. I don’t have a wife.”
“Let’s go back to your room. We’ll talk there.”
He allowed the doctor to lead him. Thankfully, Dana was no longer there.
He turned to Dr. Dubel. “Don’t let her back in here…do you understand? She might be…some kind of… delusional fan.”
“Robert, let’s sit.”
Robert sat and put his head in his hands.
“Robert, Dana Dickson isn’t crazy. It’s all true. She’s your wife.”
“What! No! You…you’re in on this too, aren’t you?”
“Robert, I’m going to give you a mild sedative.”
“No, I’m not letting you drug me.”
When he saw the doctor signal for assistance, he started to back away. The orderly and the male nurse both rushed to restrain him. He felt a prick in his arm. He continued to struggle but in a few minutes, he began to feel a lot calmer.
“How…can I….be….married…and…not know. How?” he was genuinely curious and no longer alarmed.
“Robert, this type of amnesia is not unheard of. You damaged the area of your brain that’s responsible for what’s known as episodic memory. The good news is that these memories can return. You just need to be patient. Don’t fight against it. Don’t deny it. Don’t force yourself to remember. Healing has to take place but it will come with time.”
Robert felt as though he was trapped in some kind of bizarre dream. Hopefully, he’d wake very soon.
Chapter 13
Dana wearily leaned her head against the wardrobe door and surveyed her collection of clothing. She had grabbed a few things before she had left California in a hurry and had quickly run out of clothes. Since then, she had done most of her shopping in the Waldorf’s boutiques and then later, for something to do to take her mind off Robert’s condition, she had perused the shops in Zurich and picked up a few more pieces.
Dana decided to dress somberly to fit her mood. She selected a black, knit jersey dress with tight three-quarter sleeves and a square neck. She removed it from the hanger, unzipped it, and slowly stepped into it. As she walked over to the vanity table and took a seat, she acknowledged that she was weary, emotionally and physically. She stared at herself in the mirror and sighed as she took up a comb and ran it through her hair. She hadn’t been sleeping very well and her tired eyes and labored movements were the proof.
She had effectively put her life on hold for the last three and a half weeks. No, that wasn’t a correct statement. It was truer to say that her life had stopped the moment Robert had the accident. She had barely given thought to work commitments. She’d had to cancel media appearances, meetings, auditions, photo shoots and commercials, but she didn’t care. Her first priority right now was seeing Robert through his own challenges.
Her second major concern was the kids. She missed them and wished she could be with them. But she couldn’t leave Robert and she didn’t want to disrupt their schedule by bringing them to Switzerland. Barbara and William and Cherisse had stayed with her that first week and had been briefly joined by her mother and sister, Ronnie. They were all gone now and she was alone. Well, not entirely alone, God was with her. That was a comfort.
She was still grappling with how her husband could forget who she was. There were days when she felt all alone in her suffering. No matter how many people wished her well and empathized, this was her nightmare. Robert remembered his parents and his siblings – even his friends – but not her or their kids. So, effectively, not one of them could empathize with her.
Most heartbreaking of all had been his reaction three days ago when he’d found out she was his wife. She felt tears prick her eyes as she replayed the scene over in her mind. She blinked them back and refused to give in to her emotions. She was determined to be strong. She could not – would not – fall apart.
She had said those same words to herself on another occasion. Approximately twenty-five years ago. Her mind drifted back to the day she received news of her father’s death. She remembered it like it was yesterday.
“Girls, I’ve got something to tell you…about your father.”
Dana had watched her mother with terrified eyes. She had heard her cry out just minutes before, soon after the phone rang. Dana knew instinctively the news was not good. Her little heart beat like a marching band in her chest as she waited for her mother to go on.
“Your father was hurt in Bosnia…”
She clutched hope...hope that Daddy was just injured and was on his way home to them.
“…the truck he was traveling in was hit by a bomb…he died on the way to the hospital.”
Barbara had started to wail and that set her mother to bawling too. Dana could
feel her heart crack, but as she observed how Barbara’s grief seemed to increase her pregnant mother’s she resolved at that moment she would not cry out loud. She would keep it all in and be strong for her mother. She also vowed that she would not marry a man who put himself in danger for his job.
Dana now shook her head and tears flowed from her eyes as she remembered her beloved father.
“Yet I did exactly that,” she said aloud to the empty room. “I married a man just like you, Daddy.”
After all this time, Dana finally allowed herself to deeply grieve the loss of her father. And at that point she at last forgave him for choosing his job over his family and paying the ultimate price.
“God, please help me,” she cried out silently. “I can’t do this alone. Please help me.”
Instantly a passage of Scripture raced to her mind: Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. She knew it was taken from Hebrews 13:5 because she had read it in her devotional just that morning.
Dana wrapped her arms around herself and allowed her chin to fall to her chest. She prayed from the depths of her heart. “Father, I can feel your presence right now. Please assure me of your love and care. Please fill me with your peace.”
Slowly, she began to feel calmer, more tranquil. She started to hum a familiar worship song from the band Love & The Outcome. It was called He is With Us and reminded her that she could trust God; that He knew what he was doing; that He was holding on to her; that He was with her, always.
Just then her phone rang. She got up and went over to the bedside table and picked it up as she looked at the name.
“Hi, Heather,” she answered as she sat on the bed.
“Hi, how are you holding up?”
“About fifteen minutes ago I would have said I’m barely holding up. I had a chat with God, though, so I’m feeling better. How about you?”
“I’m okay. Been thinking about taking a little trip to Switzerland. I believe you can really use a friend right now.”
“That’s sweet, Heather, but it’s not necessary. We’ll be back home in L.A. very soon. Robert’s being discharged today.”
Second Chance: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 2) Page 14
