‘The castle?’
Lo buried her face in her hands momentarily before looking back at Alice. ‘Oh, God, Lil … I’m so sorry about this … How do I even say it?’ She grimaced. ‘You had your wedding there too. Well, not exactly in the same place – Justin could afford the banqueting hall inside the castle. But Isaac had his heart set on Hadsborough, and I asked if you minded, and you said no problem, go ahead. But I had this little niggle telling me it was a bad idea. I should have listened to it … But by the time I’d realised it was the wrong call, it was too late to back out.’
‘It’s okay … If I told you it was fine, there’s no way you could have known it wasn’t.’
Her sister looked so guilty that Alice reached across and covered her hand with her own. ‘This was not your fault. I wish I could tell you what set me off, but until my memory returns,ifit returns … I won’t be able to shed any light on that.’
‘You disappeared after my hen night. But nothing out of the ordinary happened.We drank cocktails, we danced, and then went home. But then the next day, you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts, so by the day after that, I’d begun to get worried. I’ve got a spare key to your place, so I went around and let myself in. Everything looked as it should be, but you weren’t there, and no one at your work had seen you. That’s when I called the police. They found some CCTV of you walking down Beckenham High Street about six o’clock on Friday morning. You had a jacket on, and you were wearing jeans and carrying that bag.’
As Lo said this, Alice saw a picture of herself digging her hands in her jacket pockets as she entered Beckenham station. This was quickly followed by another ‘flash’ – being on the Underground, hanging onto an overhead rail, letting the sway of the train lull her as it raced through the tunnels.
‘I remember that! I’ve been having these images in my head sometimes. At first, I wasn’t sure if they were memories, but I’m getting more and more convinced they are.’
Lo’s eyes lit up. ‘Do you think that means your memory is coming back?’
‘I don’t know, but … Oh, God, I hope so.’
At that moment, a young female doctor appeared around the curtain. ‘Now,’ she said, looking Alice up and down. ‘Why don’t you tell me what the problem is?’
Alice sat on the edge of the bed in a clean, bright room on one of the upper floors of the hospital, having just signed the paperwork so she could be discharged. Last night,she’d had another round of tests similar to those she had in Lochgilphead, and when the consultant psychologist arrived on her morning rounds, she’d referred Alice to the memory unit at Imperial College London and said that she was free to go home, although it would be good if she wasn’t on her own for a few days. Her parents had very kindly said that she could stay with them. They seemed genuinely sweet people, but it was going to be very odd sharing a house with complete strangers.
At least now she’d been given a clean bill of health, Lo would stop talking about cancelling the wedding. She could manage being a bridesmaid, couldn’t she? All she had to do was stand around and smile for bit, hold some flowers, eat a nice meal … She’d be fine tomorrow. Probably.
She wished Ben were here. He was always such a good sounding board, always made so much sense. Where was he? Back at Marco’s hotel? She’d meant to call him last night, but she’d dropped instantly into a deep and dreamless sleep as soon as she’d been brought up to her room in the early hours of the morning.
She took her phone off the nightstand and dialled his number, but it went straight to voicemail. ‘Hi,’ she said when the beeps had finished. ‘I’m at the hospital, but I’m getting ready to go home. Itwasmy family, as security probably told you. My mum and dad were there. My sister, Lo – that’s short for Elodie – insisted on taking me to get checked over, even though I’d already told her I’d been given a clean bill of health – well, except for the memory loss, that is.’
She was rambling, but it was just so nice to let it all spill out to someone who knew her,reallyknew her.
‘I know my full name, Ben. I know who I am. I’m Olivia Jasmine Everett, and I live in Beckenham, but everyone calls me Lili. My family would love to meet you, to say thank you for coming all that way with me, for bringing me home to them. Lo has invited you to the evening reception tomorrow. If you can make it, of course.’
Her pulse quickened at the thought. There was nothing to stop her and Ben being together now. As far as she understood it, she was completely and utterly single. Hope began to float like a helium balloon inside her chest.
‘Anyway, no worries about dressing up too much – Lo knows you’ve lost your wallet and didn’t come prepared to go to a wedding, so, um … text me back, or call me and we’ll sort out the details …’
She hung up, then stared at the blank magnolia wall of her hospital room. There was nothing to do now but wait for her parents to bring the car around to the front of the hospital.
Her phone was in her hand, so she opened up the camera roll and scrolled through all the photos and videos she’d taken over the last couple of days. It was only when she got to the most recent ones that she realised she hadn’t made any entries in her travel journal since she and Ben had been hiding in the maze at Hadsborough Castle. A whole chunk of the story was missing.
She held the phone up, switched to video mode, stared at herself on the screen and began to record. ‘Lili? Hi. This is you. The other you. There are a few things I need to tell you …’
Chapter Fifty-Six
Now.
BEN WOKE UP feeling as if he’d been hit by a truck. He blinked, rubbed his eyes and reached for his phone. Seeing the time on his lock screen woke him up pretty fast. Half-past ten? He never usually slept that late. However, yesterday had not been a very usual day, and it had been past four when he’d finally dozed off.
He’d just pushed himself up to rest against the headboard when his phone rang in his hand. FaceTime from Norina. ‘Hey, there, sleepyhead,’ she said, quickly taking in his dishevelled state. ‘How’d it go?’
Ben hid a yawn with his hand. ‘Yeah, sorry I didn’t get back to you. It was a bit of a crazy—’
‘Ben!’ His aunt gave him a look he knew was not best to ignore.
‘Sorry. The news is … Mission accomplished. Alice is reunited with her family, and I’ll be heading home later today.’
Norina blinked. ‘That’s it?’
‘What more do you want me to say? I mean, I can fill you in on all the details later when my brain’s decided to remember what being awake is, but that’s basically what happened.’
