Burning Obsession. Carole Mortimer

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       CHAPTER THREE

      KELLY was stunned, speechless. Her father had lost his memory! Well, not all of it, just the relevant part that would tell him she and Jordan were no longer together.

      ‘He has to be told,’ she said unthinkingly, looking up at the doctor. ‘He’ll have to be told that Jordan and I——’

      ‘I doubt it’s wise to tell him anything?’ Jordan interrupted coldly. ‘Am I right, Dr Jones?’

      ‘Quite right, Mr Lord,’ the other man nodded gravely. ‘At the moment he simply couldn’t cope with the knowledge that five years of his life are total blackness to him. His heart condition——’

      ‘Heart condition?’ Kelly repeated dazedly. ‘I don’t know of any——’

      ‘I know,’ Jordan acknowledged. ‘David told me about it years ago.’

      ‘How many years ago?’ she demanded to know.

      ‘About four.’ he replied calmly.

      Dr Jones nodded. ‘That would be about the time he first found out about it.’

      ‘But I wasn’t told,’ Kelly said dully. ‘My father said nothing to me.’

      ‘He probably didn’t want to worry you,’ the doctor excused. ‘After all, he’s still a young man, he wouldn’t see any necessity for telling you of something that may never happen, to worry you unnecessarily.’

      ‘Now that he’s lost his memory he probably doesn’t even know about it himself,’ she pointed out bitterly.

      ‘I would say it’s a certainty that he doesn’t, which is all the more reason why he must receive no undue shocks. Normally he knows to avoid any unnecessary stress or strain, without the knowledge of his condition he won’t take the necessary precautions, so we must try to protect him all we can.’

      ‘But how long will he be like that?’ Kelly sat forward in her seat. ‘How long before he remembers?’

      The doctor shrugged. ‘It could be hours, days, even weeks. I have no way of telling.’

      ‘Weeks?’ she echoed. ‘But he—In the meantime what do we do?’

      ‘The safest thing is to act as if it really were five years ago. His memory will come back of its own accord, if we try to force the issue it would in all probability make things worse.’

      ‘But we can’t—Jordan and I—we don’t——’

      ‘What my wife is trying to say,’ Jordan cut in dryly, ‘is that she and I are separated.’

      A ruddy hue coloured the other man’s cheeks. ‘I see,’ he said slowly. ‘That makes things a little difficult.’

      ‘In what way?’ Jordan’s eyes were narrowed.

      ‘Mr Darrow has no other injuries other than the cut on the head. Medically he’ll be able to leave hospital in a few days’ time. Normally he would go home to you, I wouldn’t recommend that he be alone at the moment. But if you’re divorced——’

      ‘We aren’t divorced,’ Jordan put in smoothly. ‘Just separated, as I said.’

      ‘I see. Then perhaps it would be possible after all.’ He stood up in preparation of ending the meeting. ‘I strongly recommend that you seriously consider a temporary reconciliation for Mr Darrow’s benefit. Obviously I can only advise you …’

      ‘Obviously,’ Jordan accepted dryly. ‘We’ll discuss the problem and let you know what we decide.’

      ‘I’m not going back to living with you,’ Kelly told him as soon as they were alone.

      ‘I knew you’d say that,’ Jordan said disgustedly, standing up to pace the room. ‘As usual you’re only thinking of yourself.’

      ‘I’m——’

      ‘You’re a selfish little bitch!’ he dismissed. ‘You always were. You aren’t thinking of your father at all, are you? Think what will happen if he suddenly finds out that far from being an ecstatic couple just back from our honeymoon we’ve in fact lived apart for the past five years.’