Never Far Away (The Never #2)(2)
“What are you talking about? What do you mean they can’t find him? What happened to him? Is he ok?” Panic coursed through her and she could hear the machine monitoring her heart beeping more rapidly. “What do you mean? He didn’t do anything to me.” Ella felt the fog trying to take her brain over again.
“We know he hurt you, Ella. Porter told us what happened,” Megan said softly.
“Porter?”
Megan and her mother exchanged worried looks.
“What is going on?” Ella demanded, trying to sound authoritative, but failing when her voice came out at a whisper still.
“Ella might still be dealing with some confusion. It is totally normal. Try not to add to her confusion by overwhelming her,” the doctor said to her mother and sister. “Ella, do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Ella shook her head.
“Do you know how old you are?” Ella raised an eyebrow at the doctor and thought he was asking her pretty stupid questions.
“Twenty-nine.”
Her mother took in a sharp breath and held it.
“Good. Now, what month is it?”
“March.” This time Megan reacted and brought a hand over her mouth to stifle a shocked cry. Ella’s eyes fluttered between the doctor, her mother, and her sister. Something was wrong. “What is it?” Ella looked to the doctor for answers and he smiled at her reassuringly.
“Ella, what is the last thing you remember? Tell us what you did yesterday.” Ella blinked at him. It was a simple question, but she found that the answer was buried by heavy muck in her mind. She was going to have to dig and wade through mental mud to dig up the memory he asked for. She closed her eyes and tried to bring up the events of the day before. She thought hard and long, and finally images came to her mind. Megan was there, and they were walking past stores, and they were outside.
“Megan and I went shopping downtown. We had lunch at Rockbottom Brewery,” Ella looked over at her sister.
“Very good, Ella. Why don’t you get some rest now?”
“Is Daddy outside?” She asked.
“I’ll send him in,” Megan said, sounding sad. Ella watched Megan leave the room then her head fell to the side again, feeling heavy and droopy.
“Mom?” Ella asked softly.
“Yes, Baby?” Her mother answered as she brushed her hair out of her face.
“Who is Porter?”
Chapter One
Ella
Ella looked out the window of her boutique clothing store, Poppy, and was excited by the sunshine filtering through the glass. June in Portland usually brought the long awaited sun. It rained nine out of the twelve months in a year. And although Portlanders were magnificent rain contenders, they really cherished the sunlight. When the good weather rolled through the city it seemed as if everyone came out of hiding. You could see a million different kinds of people walking down the sidewalk in front of her store and people watching was always a good way to pass the time.
She found that since she had so easily lost six weeks of her life, it was also easy to lose herself for a few minutes during the day. She was constantly zoning out and drifting away, only to be pulled back to reality by someone talking to her or asking her a question, interrupting her intense gaze at nothing in particular.
She was still completely baffled that she couldn't remember six whole weeks of her life. Why six weeks? Why those six weeks? What if something really important had happened during those weeks and she had no idea? What if she had won the lottery? Or maxed out a credit card? Or booked a really expensive, yet fabulous, trip around the world? Was she missing her own vacation right now because she couldn't remember planning it?
The thoughts of why, or what, were all-consuming sometimes and she always felt a nagging in the back of her mind constantly berating herself for not being able to recall those six weeks. Although, it seemed there was always a silver lining. Along with any good things she couldn't remember, she also couldn't remember the bad. Her family had a hard time telling her about Kyle and, to be honest, she had a hard time believing what they told her. How surreal it had been to have her family tell her something so totally unbelievable about the man she loved. But then she had no choice but to believe them because he had mysteriously disappeared. A small wave of sadness swept over her, but she brushed it off, reminding herself that it had been two months and it was time to stop being sad over something she couldn't control, least of all remember.
She turned as a man and woman came into the shop. She smiled brightly at them as they made their way into the middle of the store.
“Hi, welcome to Poppy. Enjoying the sunshine?” She asked. Her eyes darted back and forth between the woman and the man. The woman smiled back at her.
“It is so pretty out; I hope the sun sticks around this time.”
“Me too,” Ella responded. She let her eyes linger on the man, hoping to catch his eye so she could engage him in conversation. It had become her new obsession. Every man over the age of twenty she came into contact with, she tried to make him speak. She was on a seemingly never-ending quest to find the voice. He had only said a few words to her right as she was waking up, but she would never forget the voice that had spoken to her or the lips that belonged to that voice.
Ella took a few steps towards the couple and spoke directly to the man who was wrapped up in his phone at the moment.