Vows of Vengeance

“So you don’t remember anything before you woke up in that hotel room, Stella?”

Thank heavens the woman had finally accepted that she didn’t know how to respond to the title Mrs. Devlin. It simply was too foreign for Stella to believe that she’d been married and didn’t remember a wedding or her husband.

It shocked her even more to know that she’d married that cold, unnerving man who’d ridden up front in the police car with another officer while she’d suffered the inhumanity of being shoved in the back behind a cage like an animal. He hadn’t spoken to her on the ride to the hospital, and had simply presented her to the doctor who worked with the forensic scientists and crime scene unit, as if he had no personal or emotional involvement with her.

Then again, maybe they hadn’t had one. Maybe that’s the reason she’d left. She’d been running from him.

Had he come looking for her? Had he cared what happened to her? Or had he simply viewed her departure in his calculating, unemotional way and said good riddance?

“Stella?”

She jerked back to the present, exhaustion weighing her down. She was incredibly thirsty, too, her mouth so dry her lips were sticking together.

“No, I told you I don’t remember anything.” She rubbed a weary hand over her forehead, then noticed the blood again and cringed. “When can I get a bath?”

“We’re almost finished.”

“How about a drink of water?” In spite of the heat outside, her teeth chattered. “And a blanket?”

For the first time since she’d arrived, Dr. Wong’s expression softened. In response to her request, the doctor retrieved a pitcher of water from a sideboard, poured Stella a glass and handed it to her. She also grabbed a blanket from the closet and wrapped it around Stella’s shoulders. Stella drank the water greedily, already craving more as she tugged the blanket tighter around her.

When she finished the second glass of water, Dr. Wong narrowed her eyes. “Have you been ill recently?”

“I…don’t know. Why do you ask that?”

“Because you seem dehydrated. And you’re pale, have faint bruises beneath your eyes.”

A desperate sob rose in Stella’s throat. “I’m just so tired.”

“What’s your full name?”

“Stella Segall…that’s all I know.”

“Where do you live?”

Stella searched her memory banks for some clue, some memory, anything to stir from the depths of despair threatening to swallow her. Finally she shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

“Do you have family?”

She shrugged, any patience she’d had dissipating. “Not according to Agent Devlin. And if I remembered one, don’t you think I would have asked for them by now, called and begged them to get me out of this godawful mess?” She raked her jagged bloody nails across the table. “Why? Did Agent Devlin lie to me? Has someone come forward looking for me? Do I have a mother, a sister or a brother maybe?”

Dr. Wong averted her gaze slightly, and Stella read the gesture as an answer. Luke Devlin hadn’t lied.

He was the only person she had. And he had brought her here in handcuffs.

What a sad testament to her life. Why didn’t she have friends? Family? What had happened to bring her to this point?

You’re a murderer.

The voice whispered in the far recesses of her mind, taunting her.

Was she really such a horrible person?

Dr. Wong crossed her legs, her clipboard planted firmly on top of her black suit skirt. “Where have you been staying the past year?”

“I don’t know!” Frustration exploded in Stella’s voice. “Why do you keep asking me the same questions over and over? I told you I don’t remember anything but waking up in that room and seeing the b-blood.” She gulped, the images flashing again, sweat trickling down her neck and back.

“I’m hoping to spark your memory.”

Stella gripped the water glass with trembling hands, the first glimmer of hope surfacing. “So you believe me?”

A long hesitation, followed by a labored sigh. “I believe something happened to you, something that you want to forget. Something traumatic.”

Stella flinched. So the woman thought she was guilty.

Thought she’d repressed the facts. But how could she forget shooting someone? Or getting married.

And why had a stranger been in her bed instead of her husband?

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