Underestimated Too

by Jettie Woodruff

  Drew turned, like he was being pulled from a daze. I stood when he walked to me, taking both my wrists. “I’m going to call you a cab,” Drew said.

  “No, Drew. I want to be with you,” I insisted I didn’t want him to push me away. I wasn’t worried about him snapping. This wasn’t that kind of emotion. This was pain. Drew was hurting, and I wanted to be with him.

  “Morgan, I just need to be alone for a bit. Please?”

  “I have a suggestion,” Deidra interrupted. “How about a drive? How about you don’t go to work and hide behind exertion? Take Morgan for a drive, out of the city, somewhere quiet?”

  I turned back to Drew, hoping he’d say yes. He smiled a weak smile and ran the back of his hand down my cheek. “You want to go for a drive?”

  “Yes, I’d love that.” I smiled, feeling like we were getting somewhere for the first time since we’d started seeing Deidra.

  Chapter 26

  I couldn’t have been happier with my life. Well, other than that stupid key hidden in the bottom drawer in my jewelry box. I still couldn’t get that out of my mind. Drew knew the key was at the estate. Why would he hide it there? There was something very mysterious about the whole thing.

  “You’re not leaving this house while I’m gone,” Drew demanded, pulling me from my investigating mind and taking Nicky from my arms.

  “Uh? Yeah, okay, I won’t,” I promised, watching Nicholas giggle when his daddy tossed him to the air.

  “What are you going to do?” Drew asked,

  “I don’t know. Stick around here, I guess. We’ll stay busy, uh, Nicky?”

  “I’ll take you to the beach house when I get back on Wednesday.”

  “We have to see Deidra Thursday, but I would like to go there.”

  “We can miss one appointment.”

  “No, we can’t. You were getting to a good part.”

  “That’s not a good part. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later. Stay here,” Drew demanded again while handing me Nicky and pulling close to rub my ass in a warning to heed to his commands. “I love you and you,” he added to Nicky, kissing us both.

  “I love you too,” I sighed, bored already, thinking about him being gone for three days again. I couldn’t wait until he was down to enough stores that kept him home. I didn’t want him running all over the world anymore, and I didn’t want to be in bed without him.

  Nicky and I sat on the shiny floor and shopped online for some new clothes. I swear that boy grew every day. I hated it. I didn’t want him to grow up. “You like that?” I asked him when he left the red truck for the keyboard, pressing a whole line of letters. “Daddy wouldn’t like that, he says that color makes you look like a sissy,” I said, removing him from crawling across my keyboard.

  My days were filled with Nicky and trying my best to keep him on all fours. He was so closed to walking and I didn’t want him to. I wanted Drew to be there to see it too. Every time he let go of whatever he was holding onto, I grabbed him. He was ready, I could have easily gotten him to take a couple steps. As much as I wanted to do that, I wanted to wait for Drew more.

  Drew actually saw him take his first step before I did. I was running him bathwater when my phone rang. Nicky was standing by the tub, trying to reach the water. I walked to the other side of the bathroom to get him a towel when Drew stopped me.

  “Morgan! Turn around.” I turned just in time to see Nicky’s little naked butt move from the tub to the toilet in three wobbly steps. Of course, his hands went right to the toilet water.

  It wasn’t the memento I wanted of his first steps, but at least Drew got to see it too.

  ***

  I anticipated Thursday morning for days, thinking about Drew describing my return, anxious to hear his feelings and thoughts about my reappearance.

  I talked first, explaining to Deidra and Drew about coming out of the coma not knowing who anyone was, including myself.

  Drew stood and walked away from us to face the dumpster alley, resting his head on the windowsill. Drew began his story, “Five weeks, I waited for this day. Five weeks I waited for her to wake from a coma. Staring myself down in the mirror, I thought about how I was going to feel when she was finally awake. The last few weeks wreaked havoc on my sanity. I was feeling emotions and thinking about things I’d never thought about, ever. Could I hang onto it when she opened her eyes and saw me? Did I want to?

  ‘You ready? Callaway is coming up the lane now,’ Derik asked, tapping on the door.

  ‘Why the hell is he even going? He can’t even be in the room when they wake her,’ I complained, straightening my tie.

  ‘She’s his granddaughter. He wants to be there.’

  ‘Great. And we just have to arrive in a limo,’ I grumbled again as the car pulled to the front door to pick Derik and me up.”

  “Derik was there when I woke?” I asked, interrupting.

  “Yes, that was when I thought he was my friend,” Drew replied without stopping. “I felt like I was waiting for my first born, twisting my fingers, anticipating Morgan’s reaction when she saw me. What if she freaked out? What if she blurted the whole truth and disclosed our hidden past?

  The remorseful feelings were asphyxiated quickly. Morgan gagged and choked as the tube was removed from her throat. That was the last stage of her being woken from her medically induced coma.

  ‘Maybe you should come a little closer. It might be good for her to see a familiar face when she wakes,’ Dr. Tharp coaxed, as he watched her confused expression.

  Taking a step closer, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know how to play this role, nor did I know what Morgan was going to do when she woke. I wasn’t feeling sorry anymore, that’s for sure. Was she really going to play this card? I wasn’t buying it for a second.

  ‘I don’t know who this is,’ she assured the doctor, pulling her hand away from mine.

  ‘Morgan, it’s me. Drew. Your husband,’ I persuaded with raised eyebrows.

  ‘No, I don’t think that’s right,’ Morgan said with a look I’ll never forget. I thought for sure it was all a hoax. It was too dramatized. I just knew she was faking it.

  Morgan groggily answered a few questions, asked what was wrong with her, and dozed in and out of consciousness.

  ‘Let’s let her rest,’ Dr. Tharp suggested. ‘She’s showing real progress and the activity in her brain is showing impressive results. I’m very optimistic about a full recovery.’

  I relayed the information to Callaway, and he insisted on seeing her himself. She, of course, didn’t wake and continued her charade of not knowing who I was. I wasn’t buying it, and my new found repentance I’d gained over the past five weeks was replaced with anger. She was playing me for a fool.”

  “I wasn’t, Drew,” I responded.

  “I know, baby,” Drew smiled. “Morgan spent another week in ICU and was finally moved to her own room where I continued to visit her daily. She still played the amnesia act, pretending not to remember me or anyone else. The next three weeks were spent in rehab. Morgan had to practically learn to walk again. Her muscles needed to remember how to work again after being still for so long. Her broken pelvis caused a great deal of pain while she learned the—taken for granted—skill all over again.

  I didn’t spend as much time there once she was in the rehabilitation center, stopping in every day or so. I had a business to run and to be truthful about the whole thing; I was having a hard time stomaching the whole contriving amnesia bullshit. Day after day after day, she insisted she didn’t remember me. She even asked questions about her childhood, her parents, our wedding. It was all a hoax. She was afraid of coming home with me. She knew. She knew exactly what was in store for her. If she didn’t, she’d soon find out.”

  A cold chill ran clear up my spine, hearing Drew describe what he had planned for me once he got me back to the house.

  Drew said, rubbing his eyes, “I remember Derik, trying to convince me that she wasn’t faking it.

  ‘I don�
�t know, man. I don’t think she’s faking it,’ Derik voiced his opinion while we tried to work up a proposal. I couldn’t focus. I was too worked up about picking her up, bringing her back here and resuming our roles as husband and wife.

  “She’s faking it, Derik. I can tell. I saw her wipe away a tear the other night when she thought I was sleeping in the chair. What would she be crying over if she didn’t remember? I’ll tell you what. She knows she’s found. She knows she’s coming back here. She knows I’m going to teach her one hell of a lesson for the last two years,’ I angrily yelled at Derik.” Drew paused in his thoughts and turned to look at Deidra.

  I shivered, hearing Drew’s vindictive tone. “I remember crying a lot, Drew. Not because of what I remembered at all. I cried for what I didn’t remember, not knowing who I was or where I was going.”

  “You cried a lot?” Drew asked, turning to face me.

  “Yes, you have no idea what it’s like to wake up and not remember who you are.”

  “No, I don’t know what that is like Morgan. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, go on,” I nodded.

  Drew resumed his story, recalling his conversation with Derik, “Derik tried convincing me, ‘Or she could just be scared shitless because she’s coming home to a world she really doesn’t remember.’

  ‘No, that’s not it. I think she’s trying to pull a fast one. She thinks she’ll come here, pretend to not know me so I won’t show her what her place is, and sneak out never to be seen again. I guarantee that won’t happen. She is not to go anywhere without you or me. You got that?’

  ‘No problem, I’d gladly take her wherever you want.’ Derik smiled maliciously.

  ‘What the fuck does that mean? You ever fucking touch her, and I’ll kill you with my bare hands,’ I vindictively threatened Derik.

  ‘Damn, dude. Chill out. I didn’t mean anything by it. Come on. Let’s go bring your wife home.’

  Once again Callaway insisted on the limo. He wanted Morgan brought home as comfortable as possible.

  I spent the next few days observing her every move. If she was faking the whole amnesia, she was doing a damn good job at it. I fought urge after urge to go to her room, fuck her, and put her right back in her place. I didn’t do it for whatever reason. She was different than she was when she’d left, sort of strong, I guess. Morgan wasn’t a strong person, she never was. She bowed her head and submitted to me. That’s what Morgan did.”

  “Morgan still does that,” I confirmed.

  Drew looked at me with a frown. “You do not,” he argued.

  “Okay, whatever, Drew. Continue.”

  “No. You do not bow down to me.”

  “What was our conversation the day Nicholas started walking?”

  “I don’t know. We talked about a lot of things that day.”

  “What did we talk about when you were going out the door? You made me promise that I wouldn’t go anywhere. That’d I’d stay home. Remember?” I wanted to hash this out now, see what Deidra thought about him not letting me out of his sight.

  “Are you referring to us having a couple drinks?” Deidra asked.

  “You didn’t have a couple drinks,” Drew accused. “She was out until almost three in the morning.”

  “Yeah, and she was in good hands. She had a good time and got a little drunk. What upsets you about that? You know marriage can’t be one sided, Drew.”

  “Oh, and now she decides to be a doctor,” Drew spat, waving his arm at Deidra.

  “Sarcasm noted, Drew. So is the problem Morgan going out with me, your therapist, or is it more, Morgan going out period? You would have been okay if it would have been Morgan and Alicia? Is that what you’re saying, Drew,” Deidra gave it right back.

  “No,” he honestly spoke in a quieter tone.

  “Thank you, let’s move on, we’ll come back to this later,” Deidra remarked, looking at me for permission to move on from this subject. I took a deep breath, nodding that I was fine with it. I really wasn’t. I wanted to go more into Drew’s control issues, but Deidra evidently did things a certain way, her way.

  “You were saying how you observed her behavior,” Deidra offered.

  “Yeah, I watched her every move over the next few weeks, mostly at night. It did something to me when she woke having horrific nightmares. She’d wake panicked, gasping for air. I wondered what they were about. Did I cause the bad dreams? Was it the wreck maybe? Did something happen to her while she was gone? Was she remembering something? I wanted in her head. I wanted to know why. Why did she wake in a panic, holding her chest, out of breath, and sometimes crying? I needed to know, although I was sure it was me. I didn’t want it to be because of me.

  She wasn’t bowing down to me at all. She did whatever the hell she wanted. It was really starting to annoy the hell out of me: the bursting into my office unannounced, walking around in shorts and t-shirts, bare feet. And her bold comments towards me made me want to strike her right across her face. Part of me wanted her to submit to me and the other part found her very amusing. I wasn’t sure what to think about the whole theatrical scene. I mean, she did act like she didn’t remember things, but I was still skeptical.

  I nagged and nagged about her new attire. She didn’t even bother to ask me before jumping in my desk chair and ordering clothes. She laughed about it and thought it was funny. I guess I did a little too, and to be honest, I kind of liked her walking around in short, shorts with her midsection exposed. I even liked her bare feet pitter patting across the marble floors.

  I tried my best to stay home and not travel. I sent Derik instead, unless it was something I needed to handle myself, and that was a day or two at the most. I hated not being there when she woke from having a nightmare, not that I had the balls to go to her, but at least I was there.”

  “You did come to me when I had nightmares, Drew?” I interrupted again.

  “Sometimes, not always,” Drew commented before continuing, “I got rid of both nurses as soon as I could. Morgan was becoming a little too close to them for my comfort. Marta on the other hand seemed to put me in my place as much as Morgan was trying to do. I never had the talk with her like I had Rebecca. I hired Rebecca. She knew she was to keep her mouth shut and mind her own business. Marta on the other hand was hired by Callaway. She was hired to take the best care of her, and she did. Whatever Morgan wanted, Marta saw to her getting.”

  “Marta was pretty quick to put me in my place too,” I said, looking to Deidra and not Drew. “She wouldn’t let me lay around and feel sorry for myself. She made me get up and live.”

  “But she still gave you everything you wanted,” Drew challenged. “Like sneakers of all things. My wife didn’t wear sneakers. She wore thousand dollar stilettos. And the jeans, well, I guess I liked the jeans a little, especially when she wore them with heels. Morgan had turned into quite the beauty right before my eyes, and I’d missed it. I was seeing her for who she was for the first time since I’d first met her. I didn’t like it. I didn’t have feelings like this, I didn’t do feelings. It wasn’t my thing.”

  Chapter 27

  “I sat alone in my office for over an hour, contemplating what Derik was saying. He was right. I was being stupid and needed to get Morgan back to a place where she knew what was expected of her. I wouldn’t hit her, not for a while anyway. I didn’t want her to end up back in the hospital or anything. We needed to have sex. I needed to get that out of the way, show her how things really were. That’s what I’d do. My cock twitched at the thought of it. I didn’t know how many more nights I was going to be able to jack off in my hand before I went nuts. I’d go to her after she showered, be waiting for her on her bed.”

  “Jesus, Drew, too much,” I said, rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

  Drew ignored me, talking about me like I wasn’t sitting right there. “Derik warned me, ‘You’re screwing up. Mark my words, this is all going to come back and bite you in the ass. You watch,’ before leaving my office for the day
. Morgan had just barged in with a cup of coffee. I think maybe he was more pissed off that she didn’t bring him one.

  It didn’t work out the way I’d planned. I hadn’t planned on having such a good time with her. I’d taken her shopping for a new dress to wear the following night with Callaway. Right off the bat she defied me and picked a dress that I said no to. It didn’t make me mad like it once would have. I found it a little amusing, and the way she was looking at me and smiling, was driving me crazy. I’d never felt that way before. She was flirting with me, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Morgan was flirting with me, and I was liking it.

  ‘I don’t think I like wine,’ she admitted over dinner.

  I laughed. ‘You love wine. You always drank wine.’

  ‘I did?’

  ‘Yes, I think your taste buds are injured too.’

  ‘Maybe or maybe I liked something else, and you’re taking this opportunity to get me to like what you want me to like,’ she teased, sipping the wine.

  ‘Could be. Maybe I’m trying to get you a little drunk,’ I teased in a low tone, trying to flirt back. I really didn’t have a clue how to do this. We’d never really don’t that before. She was full of surprises. I kind of liked this Morgan. She stood, bent to my ear with her hand flat on my chest.

  ‘Maybe I don’t need to be a little drunk for that,’ she whispered hot words to my neck and ran one finger through the gap between buttons. Jesus, I had no idea what to do with this woman.”

  I loved it. I loved the thought of him not knowing how to handle me.

  “Walking into the house, hand in hand, I stopped her at the door. She was fighting too, not knowing what to do with me either. That part was true. I didn’t have any idea what to do. I remember wondering if that was how I felt when I was a virgin, the first time I had ever had sex.

  She stopped just before the door and leaned into me. It was the strangest situation I’d ever been in. We both wanted to cross that line and give into each other. Neither of us knew how.