Last Summer(85)

Not only that, but how well does she know her husband?

She’d promised Damien her honesty. Since Las Vegas, she’s been honest with him about everything. Everything except that email from Dr. Whitely. Because she’s had a niggling feeling in the back of her head.

Ella thinks back to her conversation with Damien in their Las Vegas hotel room and the way he smiled when she told him that she didn’t want her memories back. His smile was almost calculating. His expression was one of satisfaction. She excused it as happiness, but maybe she’s been lying to herself. That smile has never sat well with her.

There’s the way Damien watched her in the months after the accident. Studying her as though contemplating his next move. What had he been thinking about?

And her phone, the one he’d purchased and set up for her after her accident. Her location services had been on the entire time she was with Nathan, and in her settings, under “share my location,” an unfamiliar phone number had been approved. Ella suspects Damien knew exactly where she’d been in Alaska.

Everything about those memories has increasingly bothered her. But it was the discovery on her phone just the other week that finally pushed her to log into her laptop early in the morning. Huddled over the bright screen with a blanket draped over her shoulders to ward off the cold night, Ella typed her reply. She told Dr. Whitely that his process worked. She also informed him that she unintentionally blocked too many memories.

Ella looks at the time stamp on Dr. Whitely’s response. It was almost immediate. He must have been up late working. She opens the message and reads. He wants her to come in ASAP so that he can evaluate her. He wants to run more tests. Meanwhile, attached is her unique code in the event she’s misplaced her file. He assumes she did since she didn’t mention that she attempted to retrieve her memories on her own. Probably best that she waits until she can come in, he suggests. Just in case something goes awry again.

Ella drags the cursor across the screen, lets it hover over the file. She’s not sure she should open the document. If she does, she won’t necessarily apply the code. She’s not sure she even knows how. She also promised Damien. She doesn’t need her memories. He’ll tell her all, and she assumes he already has.

Then again . . .

That niggling feeling.

Has Damien been honest with her?

She double-clicks the attachment.





Coming Summer 2020

Side Trip





AUTHOR NOTE

The idea of motivated forgetting started with Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, and continued with Sigmund Freud and his studies of memory suppression. Today, research labs are studying memory control: the retrieval process and repression of specific memories. As fantastical as Ella’s situation seems, the reality of motivated forgetting may be closer than we think. Thank you for reading Ella’s story. It was an adventure to write.





DISCUSSION QUESTIONS





Ella wakes up in the hospital with no memory of her pregnancy or the car accident that caused her to lose her baby. How would you react in a similar situation? Did you suspect then that Damien knew more than he alluded to?

Damien is withdrawn and reluctant to talk with Ella about Simon in the weeks following Simon’s stillbirth. If you were in Ella’s position, would you have pressed Damien to talk or allowed him to heal in his own time?

What did you think of Ella’s choice to meet with Nathan when he reoffered the exclusive to Luxe Avenue?

Were you surprised to learn about Simon’s parentage? What about Damien’s reason for not wanting kids?

Did Damien’s plan to lure Ella back into Nathan’s arms surprise you? What about Damien and Ella’s plan from the previous summer? Did it surprise you that she’s complicit? Did it change your opinion of Ella or Damien?

What do you think happens after Ella reads the attachment to Dr. Whitely’s email?

Damien was desperate to keep his wife happy so that she wouldn’t leave him, so desperate that he came up with a plan for her to get pregnant. Ella was so desperate to have a child that she agreed to go along with Damien’s plan. Have you ever been so desperate to have something that you’ve lied or cheated to get it? How far would you go to get what you want? Would you do it again?

Many themes are addressed in this book: love, lies, deceit, honesty, and trust. Which themes resonated the most with you? What other themes did you find in the story?

If you could erase someone from your memory, would you? Who would it be and why? What about a specific event? How do you think that would affect your other memories?





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I knew the moment the concept of Last Summer presented itself to me that the story would be my most challenging project to date. I would be dealing with characters who went against my own moral compass. I’d have to push myself as much as I did them. Not one to shy away, I set about writing what I hope is an unputdownable page-turner that is as entertaining as it is unpredictable. This book is in your hands today because of my agent Gordon Warnock’s unwavering support and faith in my storytelling. Thank you, Gordon, for being as enthusiastic about Last Summer as I am—and, at times, more so. Your encouragement kept me writing, revising, and polishing, even as the story took a darker turn from the original concept.

From editorial and production to marketing and publicity and everyone in between at Amazon Publishing, thank you, Chris Werner, Danielle Marshall, Nicole Pomeroy, Hai-Yen Mura, Dennelle Catlett, Ashley Vanicek, Mikyla Bruder, Kristin King, and Gabriella Dumpit for believing in me and making Last Summer shine. Best team ever!