Prevailing Love

Chapter 17

I'm rendered speechless. I am not even sure if I heard Steffy right. How could she not know who I am? There is no way that she doesn't know who I am. It's impossible. Maybe that's not what she meant to say. Maybe she is just confused, this can't be right. We belong together. This makes no sense at all.

I lick my lips and look over at her still holding her hand tightly. "Steffy, you—you don't know who I am? It's me. Come on, it's Liam—" I say desperately looking directly into her eyes for some kind of sign. "It's me. I am your husband. We have a family together, two children, Kelly and Cooper," I encourage. "We are in love."

She stares at me blankly before pulling her hand out of mine. She looks around the room. "Where am I?" she asks out loud. "What happened? Where is my Mom, or my Dad? Why am I here?"

I stare at her for a moment, still hurting that she recoiled at my touch. "Steffy, you don't remember?" I ask with concern.

She shakes her head. "No," she finally states.

I exhale in slight frustration. "Okay, what is the last thing that you do remember?" I try to take her hand, but she pulls in away. Her reaction is cutting me deeply. I just wantto hold her and love her.

I don't even know what else to think. A million different thoughts go rushing through my head about what could be wrong. I can't lose her now.

"Steffy— "I prompt after she's quiet for several moments. "What is it that you do remember?"

"Why am I in the hospital?" she asks rubbing the side of her face. "How long have I been in here?"

"Steffy—"I says softly while touching her arm lightly. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

Steffy blinks a few times and then licks her lips, looking at me with confusion. She exhales softly before finally answering, "No." she says with certainty. "Am I supposed to know who you are? How do I know you?"

I reach into my pocket to grab my phone, flipping through the pictures on my phone to find a picture of Steffy and I. I finally choose a picture of us from our last wedding, and then I choose one more of her and the kids. "Steffy, do you know who these two people are in the picture? Do you recognize either of the people in this picture?" I ask holding the phone in front of Steffy. I hold the phone up in front of Steffy's face to give her a better look. She doesn't answer. I pull the phone back to swipe to the next picture of her and the kids, hoping that something triggers.

"Here," I say giving her the phone. "take the phone, if you need to get a closer look at the picture. Swipe the phone to the following picture to see if anyone looks familiar. You should know them. "

She takes the phone and swipes back and forth between the two pictures. She looks at one picture and then back at me. She's quiet for a minute. She looks at me finally again with a blank stare. "That's me, but who is everyone else?"

My heart breaks. I don't even know what to say to her. It devastates me that she doesn't know who I am. When her eyes fluttered open, I thought that we were over the worse of it, and we could just move forward. I was hoping that maybe the healing could begin. But if Steffy doesn't know who I am or even our children, I don't know how we are going to be able to move forward. I feel like my wife is lost to me. "You don't know who I am at all?" I ask again, praying for a different answer than she just gave me.

"No, I'm sorry," she whispers.

"It's okay baby, you are just confused. I am Liam," I say with a smile. "I'm your husband, and the two kids in this picture," I say as I swipe to the picture on my phone, "These two kids are our kids. We share them together. Their names are Kelly and Cooper. Kelly, she's 7 and Cooper is 3. We are married, in love and we all live in Malibu at the cliff house that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We are very happy together. I never dreamed that we'd be this happy."