Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
I shook my head. “An old friend.”
“What about her parents?”
“Out of the picture.”
“Siblings? Partner?”
I rolled my tongue along my inner cheek, hopping from foot to foot. “It’s just me.”
For all I knew, she was in a loving, nurturing relationship with someone. But her phone had fizzled out in the water, and I had no way to reach him, so unfortunately (for him), that left me.
Doctor Cohen tutted, tapping the butt of his pen over the clipboard.
I used all my self-restraint to keep from gouging out his eyeballs. “Well?”
“I’m going to start with the good news.” He tucked the clipboard under his armpit and retrieved a handkerchief from his coat pocket, dabbing the sweat off his shiny scalp. “We ran a CT scan, MRI, and X-rays after checking Ms. Auer’s vitals. Everything seems to be in order. The scans came back clear of fractures to the skull, areas of bleeding, and bruised brain tissue. We’ve placed her on anti-seizure medication to be on the safe side, but there are no broken bones or any other areas of concern.”
I nodded like a schoolboy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. In my experience, bad news always accompanied good news. Somewhere along the lines of: Congrats, you survived, but you’ll regret it every fucking day of your life.
“Having said that …” He cleared his throat, glancing behind him at Briar’s shut door. “It appears that Ms. Auer is suffering from what we call, in medical terms, post-traumatic amnesia. PTA, for short. Are you familiar with the concept?”
“Only from Days of Our Lives.”
I’d never met someone who suffered from amnesia. The entire concept seemed difficult to grasp. Something that only happened in unprecedented frequency to soap opera characters and defendants on Judge Judy. And also – I’d spent a great deal of my twenties hoping it would happen to me, only to come up disappointed.
“Post traumatic amnesia is the transient state of altered brain function caused by a head injury. To put it in simpler terms, it appears that Ms. Auer does not remember much of the incident leading to her hospitalization and cannot recall basic things about her current life situation.”
Briar suffered from memory loss? Dating back how far?
I blinked, struggling to comprehend his words. “Does this mean she’s awake?”
“She is. I’ve tried to gently jog her memory in hopes that she’ll pass on some sort of contact. A family member or a spouse. Nothing. She doesn’t remember.” Dr. Cohen adjusted his glasses, which strapped tight to his cheeks with a band that looped around his scalp. He had the face of a hound dog and used it to stare me down. “She’s still in pain, despite the medication we’ve given her to keep her comfortable. Her speech is clear and coherent. She simply doesn’t seem to remember anything from the past decade or so.”
Exactly the timeframe I couldn’t help her catch up with. I’d spent our time apart purposely avoiding any news of Briar. I’d gone through great lengths to ignore my parents whenever they brought up their Lake Geneva neighbors, refused to invest in companies headquartered in the country, and strong-armed Dad into finding someone else to manage our properties in the region.
Dread flared inside me. The only thing I knew about her current life was that she was still smoking hot. To be fair, she didn’t need me to discover this. All she needed was a mirror.
“I see.” I grabbed my jaw, moving it from side to side. “How long is this amnesia thing going to last for?”
“Hard to tell. Could take anywhere from five minutes to five months. Every case is unique.” Doctor Cohen pulled up his clipboard again, sliding out the pen tucked between its teeth. “There are many scales of PTA that depend on the nature of the original injury, treatments the individual chooses to undergo, and recovery time.”
“Could this last forever?”
“It’s extremely unlikely.”
“But you can’t give me an answer with 100% certainty.”
“With head injuries, and PTA specifically, there’s just no way to know. All we can do is give her a supportive, stable environment to recover in and encourage her to regain her memories through cognitive rehabilitation. Pictures, places she’s fond of, daily routines. The memories return largely on their own as the brain heals, but there are tips and tricks to jog it without risk of harm.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. The strands had clustered into crunchy ringlets, thanks to the grimy pond I’d fished Briar out of. “I’ll foot the bill for all of it. The best facility you have to offer, the most prestigious staff—”
“Facility?” Doctor Cohen’s gaze swung up from his clipboard. “The majority of the rehabilitation process is going to take place at home. I imagine you would want the physical therapist to come to your house, seeing as you’ll need to keep Ms. Auer in a peaceful environment at all times.”