He Said He Loved Me When He Forgot Me

ng sea. I took him back to my motor inn and named him Jay. He c

a warned me: "He isn't one of

e would leave me once

y hair and s

this inn. All of it is in

ix black SUVs ca

ard address him with deference: "The boar

illips Global Properties empire - did no

Make sure she doesn't g

er really los

iress, he handed me over to Arthur Garner - a widowed, sma

t his bodyguards drag me across the docks. But

d, watching our unborn baby slip

attle with sixty dollars in my pocket, and I swore I woul

pte

na's

my parents took the lobster boat out and never came back. On an October morning f

th salt and grit. His coat was soaked dark red, and the

ed doctor who lived at the end of the road, and he stitched the

ber his parents. He didn't remember where home was. He didn't even remember

st

rough the dead, lean winters. Hands that had never so much as touched a wrench grew rough with calluses. And yet som

shermen's moorings, Jay drafted a countermeasure, and in under forty-eight

ew York, asking who had prepared the filing. Jay took the truck and was gone for two days. When he came back h

a Wall Street shark on the run

en dock behind the inn, he bent a length of silv

, pulling my wool coat tighter against the bitter northeast wind. "Eve

ieved

y of six black SUVs ground up the gravel drive and crushe

inged the lobby. A tall blonde stepped down from the

ugh preferred stock to guarantee her a seat at any table the Phillips family set, and she never let anyone forget it. Jadon's mother had picked her out for him yea

rm that had answered the state's attorney's letter sold her a photocopy of the retainer for twelve

ing from the office. I went down the hall and stopped outside the scuffed wooden do

slightly lifted; the mild, gentl

"The board has voted unanimously for your retu

could liquidate the Boston assets. I've taken back fifty-one

outh and my heart going like a bird. Bianca stood acros

ked up on a beach to the charity gala next month. That's the night they announce our engagement. If your mother sees her standing

hesitate for

n of her background, that's enough to live off for several lifetimes. Besides, Arthur Garner needs a docile wife to keep his house, and his coa

e local gentry in Bangor, I'll hand him a quiet, obedient wife, and use the marriage to dangle a line of commercial c

Bianca said, and laughed. "That's the

nly to a married beneficiary. If she is still unmarried at forty, the principal reverts to the Foundation and she keeps nothing but the annual stipend. Marri

button before I had decided anything, and the little red

tly growing inside me. Two days ago, in a clinic in Ellsworth, a nurse had c

s. He had known his own name for four years, and he had let me c

, waiting for them to come and fetch him. I got my hand around the phone, held it

no flicker of guilt. He simply put his phone away and sli

rd." His vo

ting to keep control and failing; m

ocks does business without tipping their hat to the Garners. He's short on cash right now, but once your trust is injected, that little difficulty amounts to n

the wire ring on my left hand. "And what about the m

lifted his eyes to mine. He looked at

o future. I am Jadon Phillips. My life belongs to the Phillips Group board, not to a five-room mot

I walked to the desk and slammed it

id, staring straight into his eyes. "

ted wire and shook his h

k up his coat. "Legal will handle the paperwork. The wedding is Friday, a

f my offic

anca laughed out

her voice thick with disdain. "She actually thinks she has a choice. J

, threw it wide open

aid, my voice low and

ief second, as if searching my face for something familia

point of ramming her shoul

r during a storm," she murmured at my ear. "Don't f

y knees against my chest. My hands trembled as they came to rest on my belly. The room smelled of

window I watched Jadon take a gold lighter from his pocket and l

ide exhaled a thick cloud into the gray coastal sky, ut

highway and talking fast. Jadon nodded to his

Jadon's voice carried cleanly through the thin glass. "

aised settled over my dying hydrangeas. I picked the blue folder up off

on again; my legal residence bound to Arthur Garner's old house for ten full years, with the annual stipend stopping the day the marriag

sum would revert to the Phillips Founda

out in installments. Then there was a sharp knock

as Arthur Garner, in a