Seconds *COMPLETED*

Chapter 18

Daniel

"This is amnesia, Danny, memory loss. There are many causes for it; one of them is traumatic head injury. In the case of mild head trauma, the resulting amnesia usually resolves without treatment over time. Amnesia from severe head injury may not recede. However, improvements usually occur within six to nine months.

There is no actual cure for amnesia yet. I had tried all the tests possible on you, hoping that it might help you to regain your memories. But I saw no sign of an impact in you. That was the extent of the damage to your brain." Isma paused and bit her lip.

"I'm not your brother. I'm not the one who Narissa loved. I'm not Daniel Sorrens. I never was. I'm not who I've been thinking I was. I feel like a stranger to myself."

"You may not be my brother by blood. But you have been our Danny for the last two years. And you are still our Danny now. Nothing has changed and nothing will change. No one other than the three of us needs to know the truth that you're not my real brother. Life will go on just like before, Danny."

"How can you say that, Isma? Just because I can't remember who I was, it doesn't mean that I was no one. What if I had a family or a wife?"

"I waited for someone to come in search of you. Two years have passed, yet no one came. I guess you might have been an orphan with no one or the one who almost killed you had killed the others in your life as well."

I glanced at Isma, recalling Tiara's answer to my question the first day we had met.

"Is there some serial killer out there to murder you as well or what?"

"He won't kill me but he'll kill everyone else around me."

Someone had tried to kill me two years ago. Perhaps it's the same person Tiara had mentioned about. Though I had no proof whether I was Darien or not, things were starting to fit like a jigsaw puzzle in my mind.

My mind was always sharp. I had often wondered why my mind seemed to have the vigilance and precision of a detective at times. Is it just a coincidence that Darien Caruso was a detective?

From the moment my eyes had fallen on Tiara, I had felt something inside me. I didn't know if it was love but each time I looked at her, I felt the need to look at her once more. And each time I did, I felt the need to protect her, look after her and keep her happy always. Though I had tried to deny it, Mila had made me feel like she was my daughter from the second she had called me Daddy. Even after I married Narissa and started to love her for her beautiful character, I couldn't control the attraction I had felt towards Tiara. Is all of this just a coincidence or am I Darien Caruso by any chance?

"Am I him?" I muttered under my breath as I held two of my fingers to the side of my head, wishing to be able to remember something.

"Who?" inquired Isma.

"Tiara's husband. Mila's father. Detective Darien Caruso." There was a moment of foreboding silence.

"The moment you had told me Tiara was in search of her husband, I had a doubt you were him. I asked her that day you brought her home itself if she had a photo of her husband but she didn't. All her things had been stolen before you had found her and the photos she had of her husband had gone with it. As doubts lingered in my mind, it was I who spoke to Mom and Dad and convinced them to let Tiara and Mila stay here until you find Darien.

If I wanted, I could have arranged for an investigation about Darien Caruso, her husband. But I didn't. I made you investigate about him on your own. I believed that if you are Darien, people will identify you as him at the company in which he had worked. However, even after you investigated at the company, you found no trace about him. Just like all traces of your past existence were wiped out, it seemed like his was a similar case too.

Despite meeting Tiara and her child, you couldn't remember your past. Usually people or places that have an important connection to someone's past is what helps him to remember his past. But after seeing Tiara and Mila everyday for more than a month and going to all the places her husband might have been, you still couldn't remember your past. So I lost hope that you might be her husband."

"Fine, perhaps I'm not her husband. But what if I had a wife or a family who didn't even know I was here in San Diego? What if I had come from another city and that is the reason no one had identified me here till now?"

"Where will you go searching for them? Will you search all over the world? And what if no one recognises you even then?"

"Okay, fine, I don't know where to search even if I had a family. No one has come searching for me either. But why did you let me get married to Narissa? You didn't even know who I was. What if I had been married before already?"

"That was not in my hands, Danny. You didn't even know who Narissa was when Uncle Harris asked you if you will marry her. The reason he asked you was because my brother had expressed his wish to marry her the day before he had died in the accident. And no one other than me and Narissa knew that he had broken up with her.

I thought you wouldn't agree to Uncle Harris. But when Mom, Dad, Rina and Uncle Harris told you about how much you were in love with Narissa and that you wanted to marry her before the accident happened, you believed them and agreed to marry her. You're not my brother so I could understand when you doubted your decision after meeting Narissa.

Even though I told you to tell them that you're not interested in the marriage, you didn't. You didn't want to hurt anyone in our family so you kept postponing the wedding giving some excuse or the other. Finally when Tiara came, you said that you won't get married until you find her husband. I thought that might be good for you. So even though my parents wanted to start preps for your wedding, I told them to wait until you found Tiara's husband.

But you couldn't find him or remember your past. And finally, Tiara spoke to Uncle Harris and urged everyone to start preps for your wedding. I couldn't stop your wedding then. Anyway, Tiara didn't find her husband or any similarity to her husband in you. You also didn't argue as it was Tiara who had forced you into the marriage this time and thus, your marriage happened."

"Isma, you talk like everything is fine. Although I know that I'm not your brother now, your words almost want to make me believe that life will still be the same. But I feel like something is wrong. Isn't there anything that you have from my past or know about my past? Isn't there anything that might help me remember my past? I want to feel sure of myself."

"I know nothing about your past, Danny, I'm sorry. The only thing I had found on you had been your wallet. There were no ID cards in it or it would have been enough to trace who you were. Unfortunately, there was nothing. The one, who had tried to kill you, had planned well and removed all possible sources for anyone to find out who you are, thereby stripping you of your identity completely."

"Are you sure there wasn't anything left in the wallet that might help me remember?"

To be continued...

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