Can't Remember to Forget You

Chapter Thirty-Four

Owen

This shit is so fucked up.

I still can't believe the way that Cassie's sister was acting earlier. Cassie has been wrecked since we left there. She cried the whole way back to the hotel and she crawled into the bed the second we got here and she has been there sleeping since. I really hope Margo feels like complete shit when she finds out the truth. I don't know if I will ever be able to not hate the bitch after seeing how badly she hurt Cassie.

I kissed Cassie's sleeping cheek and then left the room quietly.

I went down to the truck and drove back to Cassie's house.

I'm not entirely sure why I did it, but there has to be something I can do. Surely by now she has been able to get the truth from Cassie's doctors. I have to make her see Cassie.

I knocked on the door and after a minute Margo opened the door. She looked at me then glanced around me. "Cassie isn't with me." I told her.

She stopped looking and stepped back. "Come in." She said pushing the door wider. I followed her into a small family room. She motioned for me to have a seat and I did on the large black recliner. Margo sat on the couch cross-legged facing me. "When was the incident?" She asked lowly. I could tell by the puffiness around her eyes that she had been crying.

I cleared my throat. "Christmas day." I replied.

"And she was in a coma?"

"Yeah, for just under a month, then she was in the hospital for about a month more after she woke up." I said.

"What happened to her? The doctor wasn't able to give me much information without speaking to Cassie herself." She explained.

"They say she was probably mugged. She was found beaten almost to death in an alley." I had to fight hard to block out the images for myself. I saw Margo shutter. Good, she should feel bad.

"What does she not remember? They said she has memory loss and a brain injury, and she mentioned holes in her memory?" Margo stared at the floor as she asked.

"She doesn't have any memory for about the last four years before she woke up in the hospital. Her last memory is of being here. Cassie doesn't remember moving, or anything that happened after that." I explained to her. "The docs have low hope of her ever regaining the memories, but there is a chance."

"And the drugs?" Margo asked.

"Cassie doesn't remember any of that, and she is clean now. Most of the withdrawals happened while she was in the coma. She hasn't touched anything since she woke up, or drank." I said. "She is exactly the Cassie that you grew up with. Everything else has been swept from her. You need to give her a chance. She needs you."

"You don't know what I have been through with her, whether or not she remembers it all, I do. I can't just erase my memory and go back to before everything was ruined."

"What happened?" I was afraid to know the answer, but if Cassie was going to know the truth, I at least wanted to know first so I can help her cope.

Margo ran her hands through her hair and chewed on her thumb nail. "What didn't happen?" She said sarcastically. "When Cassie decided to move to New York, everyone was so happy for her. She got a role in a small off Broadway play, she was so ready and excited. Our parent's found her a great little apartment and gave her plenty of money to get going. Cassie had everything in the world going for her." Margo shook her head. "When they started rehearsals for the show she started to get pressured by a lot of the other girls. They were just jealous that Cassie was a newcomer out of nowhere who was getting more attention than them. They teased her relentlessly and had her believing that she was not right for the role. Those little bitchy girls pushed her to have an eating disorder." She paused, a tear falling from her eye. "First it was just extreme dieting, soon she was starving herself and throwing up anytime food did pass her lips. She got so sick that she was dropped from the show. She refused to give up and move home, we should have forced her. After a while we stopped hearing from her. She would go days and weeks without checking in. Whenever she did call she always sounded off, moody and selfish. Cassie constantly asked for money and our parents just kept sending it. After about a year we got our first call about Cassie overdosing on heroine. We all went to the hospital to see her. We thought we'd be able to bring her home, get her some help but she refused it." Margo was full out crying now. "She killed my parents. The stress of it all was too much for momma. Cassie was so hateful to us. When they refused to give her money anymore she blew up on them, she said terrible things. Momma's heart couldn't take it. My momma died first, then dad a few months later. Daddy couldn't stand to live without Momma. Cassie didn't even come to the funerals. When I called to tell her they died, she said she was happy."

"I'm so sorry, I can't even start..." I didn't know what I could say. I put my face in my hands and rubbed my forehead.

"I don't know that I can do this with her again." She said softly.

"I promise you the Cassie you are talking about isn't the Cassie you saw today. You've got your sister back. You've got to find some way to forgive the past part of her."

"You say that like it would be so easy." She mocked. "Cassie has put us all through hell, I don't know how to just forgive and forget it all and welcome her back with open arms."

"You love her." I answered. "You've just got to love her, she loves you." I said. "Cassie has been so torn up since she woke up in that hospital. To her she just now lost her parents, the ones she loved. Cassie doesn't know how they died or anything, only that they aren't here now. She is mourning them now, just like you did then." I ran my hands through my hair. "Please just give her a chance and you'll see for yourself. She's different. I knew the Cassie you are talking about, and I hated her little annoying ass too, but that isn't her now."

"Fine." Margo said eventually.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Cassie can't know all that you just told me though." I told her. "If Cassie knew that her parents died from stress over her, it would destroy her."

Margo nodded her head. "I understand that." She said as she stood up. "Look, I need some time to process everything. Can you bring her back maybe tomorrow around lunchtime?"

"Yeah, sure thing." I said following her to the door.

I left hopeful that maybe I had been able to fix at least one thing for Cassie today. My heart was heavy though knowing the truth. I prayed that Margo would keep her word and hide that part from Cassie. The girl doesn't deserve to have that kind of guilt hung over her head. She'd never survive it.

Now I just need to get back to Cassie and tell her the good news.