FORGOTTEN HEART

Chapter 5: The Phone Call

MIRA POV

I don't sleep. I am sitting on the bed and the letters are lying all around me. I read every single one. Page after page of words that I have penned. Love and dreams and the future which I can not remember.

I was telling Konstantin in the letters that I feel safe because of him. And how I feel his hands are warm when he holds me. And how I do not want to part with him. I will talk about a proposal by stars. My subject is about wedding planning. I do write how much I would like to have babies with him one day.

However, I cannot say that I feel anything when reading these words. It is reading about an unknown person. A girl I used to be. A girl I was in love with now cannot love me.

The sun comes up. I can hear Konstantin pacing down the stairs. I hear his car engine start. He walks off without bothering to say goodbye. I'm glad. I don't want to see him.

At midday, my phone buzzes. It's a text from Sarah. She's asking if I'm okay. She wants to visit me. I told her yes. Please come now.

Two hours later Sarah arrives. My face makes her look concerned. She knows something is wrong. I cry and she pulls me in her arms. I yell so much that my entire body trembles. My ribs hurt but I don't care.

"What happened? Did he hurt you?" Sarah asks. Her voice is angry now.

"No. He didn't hurt me. Not physically anyway," I say. I tell her everything. About the doctor. About the letters. And about Konstantin robbing me of my memories. About the man with the gun.

My face turns pale and Sarah is listening. But when I am done she sits over the bed, as though she is no longer supported by her legs.

"Oh my God," she whispers. "Oh my God, Mira. Worse still I did not think this would happen.

"What do you mean? You knew something?" I ask.

Sarah looks at me. There are tears in her eyes. "I knew something was wrong. Yet Konstantin said it was an accident. He informed me that it was the drugs to your anxiety, and that something had gone wrong. He told me you'd get better. He is looking after you, he says, female.

"Did you believe him?" I ask.

"I wanted to. I had hoped that he loved you enough to be able to make things right, Sarah says. But I never felt good about it. I never felt right about him."

Bye said something as he went. It occurred that a man who had assaulted him had injured a person I cared about. Do you know who that is?" I ask.

Sarah's face changes. She is like I have asked her something out of this world.

His name was Marcus, says Mira, that man. "Marcus was our neighbor. He was Dad's best friend's son. You grew up with him."

I try to remember. I look in my head to find a face called Marcus. Nothing comes.

"What happened to him?" I ask.

"He died. Three years ago. Konstantin was paying him to do something. Marcus got injured in one of the business things. He fell into a coma 6 months and then he died, Sarah says. Her voice is shaking. "Our dad was devastated. You were devastated. You cried for weeks."

I think I can see the floor shaking. Konstantin was linked to the death of Marcus. And I loved him anyway. I got madly in love with the man who ruined my family.

"There's more," Sarah says. She pulls out her phone. She showed me a picture. It is a news story from the last three years. The title reads; Local Man Dies amid Mysterious Business Deal Going Awry. Police Suspect Foul Play."

Sarah says they could not accuse Konstantin as he was not proved guilty. But no one knew that he was a part of it. Everybody was aware that he somehow killed Marcus.

My phone buzzes. It is a message from an anonymous sender. The message reads: Mira, that is Doctor Reeves. I need to talk to you. It's important. Lunch at the coffee shop, Fifth street in an hour. Please. This is about your memories. I can help you recover them. However, you must know something else. Something Konstantin has not yet told you now I see.

I look at Sarah. She leaves the text through my shoulder.

"Don't go," she says immediately. "This could be a trap. And this may be Konstantin again trying to buy you in the same way.

But I need answers. I need to know everything. I must understand why I adored a man that had tortured my family. I must be aware whether the love was true or it was a mere coincidence that occurred when my head was full of drugs and lies.

"I have to go," I tell Sarah.

"Mira, wait. Let me call the police. Let me--" Sarah starts.

But I'm already grabbing my jacket. I'm already heading for the door.

"Don't try to stop me," I say.

I get to the coffee shop early. I sit in the corner and wait. My heart is beating fast. My hands are shaking. I do not know what the physician is going to say to me. I am not sure I am prepared to listen to it.

Then the door opens. But it is not Doctor Reeves who comes in.

It's Konstantin. And he's not alone. There's a woman with him. The exact female image of me. Same hair. Same eyes. Same face.

And Konstantin is holding her hand as though she was the most significant person in the world.