Kassandra stumbled back, her expression stunned.
"You won't get away with it," Eden said when she could get her mouth to form words.
Kassandra's eyes narrowed. "You're wrong. I'm clever, much smarter than a woman who didn't even know enough to prevent an accidental pregnancy."
"You told him I got pregnant on purpose."
"He came to that conclusion on his own."
"But you led him there."
Kassandra's shrug said, so what if she had? "He should never have married you. You are not in his league and you never will be."
"One day he's going to remember. You know that, don't you?" Eden demanded. "Do not think for a minute he'll thank you for lying to him about what kind of wife I've been. Aristide's sense of honor is very important to him and he's going to be furious when he realizes you are directly responsible for him compromising it."
Kassandra smiled complacently, smug certainty of victory draping her like a cloak. "We were friends long before you met and we will be friends after you are gone. And believe me…you will be gone."
Eden stood very straight, letting all the disdain she felt for the other woman show. "Friends is the operative word. I was his lover and now I'm his wife and I'm not going anywhere."
If there was something to salvage of her marriage, she would save it. If not, she would walk away because it was the right thing to do, not because she'd been sent packing by the selfish manipulator in front of her.
"I may not be his wife, but what makes you so sure I am not his lover?"
"As I said…my husband is a man of integrity. He wouldn't take a mistress."
He had promised her and she had believed him. She wasn't sure Aristide didn't want Kassandra, but she refused to believe he had taken the other woman as a mistress. Without another word or opportunity for Kassandra to vent more of her malice, Eden stormed away.
She barely made it around the corner before she was rushing for a restroom where she was violently ill. Having committed the first act of violence in her adult life, combined with the knowledge that Kassandra was relying on Aristide's lack of memory to make it possible for her to play her cruel, destructive games more blatantly than ever before, was too much for Eden's pregnancy-sensitized system.
Aristide might not be able to remember his wife, but he knew he did not like seeing her cry. Even though he had every reason to believe she was all he despised in a woman, knowing her tears were his fault made him feel like a heel. And that made him angry.
He told everyone he could not remember her at all and in a sense that was true, but once he accepted he had a wife, an overwhelming sense of foreboding came over him every time he thought about his marriage. It centered on Eden, but he did not know what caused it or how to dispel it.
He knew only that something had been drastically wrong in his marriage and it was all too easy to believe his wife had been a carbon copy of the woman who had married his uncle.
Regardless, he got no enjoyment out of watching her walk away from him. It made him feel something very much like fear and he hated it. He feared nothing…particularly no woman. That way lay total destruction for the male of the species. He'd seen enough of it with his great-uncle.
Matthias Demakis had given his young wife way too much power in his life and she had repaid that gift by using and humiliating the old man. Both Aristide and Sebastian had learned a hard and painful lesson from Matthias's marriage to Andrea.
He glowered at the door Eden had gone through. Memory, or no memory, his wife would not bring him to his knees.
"That must have been some fight for her to go storming off without her coat. The temperature is below freezing out there and she didn't strike me as the sort of woman to storm anywhere."
Aristide's head snapped up at the sound of the doctor's voice. He didn't know how long he'd been staring at the closed door, half-expecting his wife to come back through. Though why he should, he had no idea.
"We were not fighting."
"You could have fooled me."
The tension inside Aristide increased another notch. "My relationship with my wife is not something you need to concern yourself with."
"That's not true. Your amnesia is almost certainly psychologically based, as we've discussed. I would say your relationship with Eden is key to your medical condition and your health is my responsibility."
Aristide clenched his jaw at the doctor's use of her first name again. No Greek doctor would be so familiar, but his wife and this doctor were both American. Common sense told him to leave it alone, but his male instincts shrieked for redress.
"Nevertheless," he said through gritted teeth, "I have no intention of discussing my wife with you."
"I cannot force you to, of course, but she's been through a lot since the accident. Your memory loss and refusal to see her has been hard on her. She's vulnerable right now. Try to remember that."
"I did not refuse to see her."
Doctor Lewis's blond brows rose. "You did."
"Once."
"You never asked for her after that."
"She is my wife. She should not require an invitation to visit my bedside."
"Perhaps someone should have told her that."
Aristide said nothing.
"Yes, well." The doctor lifted Eden's coat from where it had dropped, but Aristide still had hold of one sleeve. Doctor Lewis pulled gently. "Why don't you let me take this to her?"
Aristide forced himself to let go, an inexplicable twinge in his chest. Was the other man's interest merely that of a medical professional for a former patient, or was he attracted to Eden as a woman?
She was beautiful and if the aura of sweetness surrounding her was not genuine, she did a good job pretending. For most men, the combination would be irresistible. The thoughts spun in his head, making it ache as the doctor strode from the room, Eden's coat clutched in one hand.
A second later, Kassandra walked back in, her cheek red. Her dark brown eyes were filled with tears and her superbly glossed lower lip trembled.
"What happened?" he asked, feeling more irritation at her reappearance than concern.
Which wasn't fair to her. She'd been a good friend his entire life and loyal employee for many years. It wasn't her fault he had this damnable selective amnesia or a wife he couldn't figure out, but was instinctively wary of.
Kassandra shook her head, her hand going to cover her cheek in a protective gesture. "Nothing."
"Tell me."
"I would rather not," she said, averting her eyes. "Things are strained enough between you and Eden as it is."
"You are saying Eden hit you?" Astonishment coursed through him. As much as he had a bad feeling whenever he thought of Eden, she had not struck him as a violent woman.
"Your wife is upset I've been spending so much time with you."
"So, she slapped you?"
Kassandra nodded with obvious reluctance. "After issuing a rather strong warning to stay away from you."
Eden's vulnerability during their discussion must have been an act along with the façade of her gentle disposition. Kassandra had certainly implied that Eden was not the sweetness and light she appeared to be. The red mark on his assistant's face would seem to indicate she saw Eden more clearly than the doctor.
Yet…part of him refused to believe despite the evidence of his eyes. It made no sense. The dark feelings surrounding Eden in his mind should make it easy for him to believe, but it wasn't. It was as if he had a mental block and that made him feel helpless. He should have no problem trusting Kassandra and her loyally to him. He knew nothing about Eden and everything about the woman who had been in his life so long.
If only he could remember.
His head began to pound in earnest.
"Are you all right?" Kassandra asked, her hand on his arm.
Funny…her touch did nothing for him. Whereas Eden standing within a foot of his bed had impacted his libido despite all his doubts about her and the lingering effects of a concussion.
"I should be asking you that."
She smiled bravely. "I am fine. I am sure she did not mean to do any lasting damage."
"She should not have hit you. I will speak to her."
"Don't. She is already…" Kassandra paused as if looking for the right word. "Volatile, or irrational rather. It is to be expected, I am sure. Any wife would have been severely taxed emotionally by everything you have gone through."
Left unspoken was the fact that Eden had shown little of that concern in staying away from his hospital room the past week. And yet she had expressed what he would have sworn was genuine hurt over his initial request she not come back in to see him immediately. Had apparently taken that as word one on her lack of welcome at his bedside…if the doctor's interpretation was to be believed.