The Boyfriend I Made Up Ordered A Ride I Never Booked Chapter 07
“It had the Swift Logistics logo on it. A blue box truck. And the license plate was… the license plate was J-A-zero-zero-three-seven-two!”
Morgan immediately pulled out her phone and called the police, repeating the number I’d given
her.
The moment she hung up, Mom was still gripping my hand, shaking. Tears wouldn’t stop falling.
But she didn’t dare sob out loud. She just kept stroking my hair, over and over.
Like she was scared I’d forget everything again in the next second.
I knew what they were both worried about.
Over the past two years, there had been moments when fragments came back to me.
But it never lasted more than half a day.
Either my head would start pounding and I’d black out-waking up with my memory reset to sophomore year.
Or I’d brush off the pieces I’d just remembered as nothing but a random dream, and they’d slip away again.
Morgan crouched in front of me, her eyes red.
Still, she probed gently, careful not to push.
“Elena, do you remember high school? When you tried to steal that chocolate your mom hid on top of the closet, fell off the chair, and busted your knee? Who carried you to the hospital?”
I looked at her, my nose stinging.
“It was you. Your brand-new white dress got covered in my blood-all down your back. You said it was fine, you’d thought it was too plain anyway, and now it had a pattern. Later, your mom chased you down the street with a broom, and I took the hit for you.”
Morgan’s tears spilled over. She turned away to wipe her face, then asked again.
“Okay. Your last birthday before graduation. What did Samuel give you?”
“He took every single movie ticket, every dinner receipt, even every sticky note I’d ever written him-from freshman year all the way through-and glued them into a thick scrapbook. On the last page, he’d tucked in an engagement ring. He said he was going to marry me as soon as we got our diplomas.”
I touched the base of my left ring finger. There used to be a silver band there-one Samuel had given me. I didn’t know where it had gone after the crash.
“He also said he’d saved enough for a down payment. Bought a condo in Oak Creek. He was going to give me the balcony for my succulents. And a whole wall of built-in bookshelves in the office for all my comic books.”
Mom was sobbing openly now.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a set of keys, handing them to me. A Cinnamoroll keycham dangled from them-my favorite. Samuel had won it for me from a claw machine last year.
“That condo… we kept it for you. Didn’t touch a thing. Just in case you ever remembered and wanted to go back.”
But I knew that wasn’t enough.
With my kind of trauma-induced amnesia, there were too many clinical cases of false recovery.
Even if I could recite all these memories, Morgan couldn’t fully trust it yet.
And there was no way she’d let me give a statement to the police-let alone identify the
hit-and-run driver-without absolute certainty.
The next day, I asked to go see the condo I used to share with Samuel. Morgan and Mom came with
The moment we opened the door, that familiar smell hit me.
Everything was exactly as I remembered.
On the couch: the half-finished scarf I’d been knitting for Samuel’s birthday. I’d messed it up so many times I’d just left the tail end hanging.
On the table: two empty mugs from the morning of the crash. I remembered slipping half a spoonful of salt into Samuel’s milk and him chasing me halfway across the room.
On the balcony: the succulents had dried up-most of them dead. But the plant stand Samuel built
for me was still there. His sticky note was still on it, that beautiful handwriting of his.
“My wife’s little babies-grow up big and strong.”
I went into the office. The built-in wall bookshelf was done, just like he’d promised.
There was an empty space on the bottom shelf. He’d said he was saving it for my trophies.
I crouched down and reached into the gap at the very back of the shelf. My fingers closed around a
small tin keepsake box.
When I opened it, everything spilled out.
The love letters I’d written him when we first got together-crumpled and old.
His vintage game cartridges.
And my very first baby tooth. I’d given it to him as a joke back then. He’d kept it all this fine.
“No one knew about this box except me and Samuel.”
I hugged it to my chest and looked up at Morgan. “Also-Samuel had a small birthmark on his left side. Light brown, like a little crescent moon. He always said it was a stamp from my past life, so I’d recognize him in this one.”
Morgan watched me, her eyes soft. She nodded, saying nothing.
These were details even she-my psychiatrist-didn’t know. They belonged only to me and
Samuel.
But I still felt like it wasn’t enough.
I needed everyone to know I was really better. That my testimony would hold up.
I offered to get a full psychiatric evaluation and neuropsychological testing. Three straight days of
exams.
All the results came back clear. My memory was fully restored. My cognitive functions were
completely normal.
The day we got the report, Morgan took me to the police station.
