After My Husband Left Me Alone with a Brain Injury I Stopped Waiting for Him to Come Back Chapter 01

After My Husband Left Me Alone with a Brain Injury I Stopped Waiting for Him to Come Back Chapter 01

When the car crash happened, my husband Kevin Walker’s first instinct was to get my older sister, Erin Carter, out of the car.

She had only suffered minor injuries.

Meanwhile, I, Allison Carter, remained trapped inside the mangled car until the firefighters and paramedics arrived and finally got me into an ambulance.

The doctor told me I’d lost the baby.

The trauma to my brain was severe, and my cognitive abilities had regressed to roughly those of a three-year-old child.

When I woke up, I didn’t recognise my husband.

I didn’t recognise the sister he’d protected in his arms, either.

Everyone told me it had just been an accident.

Kevin spent every day in my hospital room, tending to my injuries, feeding me, and patiently teaching me how to recognise the people around me again.

Whenever he held me and cried, he promised he’d never leave me on my own again.

Clutching my soft toy, I asked him quietly, “Are you my daddy?”

His eyes reddened.

“I’m your husband.”

But every time Erin called, he stepped out of the room to answer.

Then I saw a message he’d sent her on his phone.

[As long as she never remembers, we can be together forever.]

Later, Erin had a baby and said, “I want just the three of us to go to the beach and watch the sunrise. Is that all right?”

Kevin glanced at me playing with my building blocks on the floor, then agreed.

Before leaving, he told me, “If you’re hungry, get something from the fridge. If you’re thirsty, drink some water.”

Then they shut the door and left me alone in the apartment.

What Kevin didn’t know was that it would be the last time he ever saw me alive.

…

Erin stood by the door with her one-year-old son in her arms.

She urged him quietly, “Kevin, our ride’s downstairs.”

“Coming.”

Kevin turned back to look at me.

I was sitting on the carpet with a yellow block clutched in my hand, trying as hard as I could to fit it on top of my castle.

He walked over and crouched in front of me.

“Allison, if you’re hungry, open the fridge. If you’re thirsty, drink some water. There’s food inside, all right?”

I nodded.

“Hungry, open the fridge. Thirsty, drink water.”

“Good.”

He reached out and patted my head.

“We’ll be back soon. We’ll bring Allison her favourite strawberry cake.”

As Kevin walked out, his hand brushed the main power button on the smart panel beside the apartment door.

Click.

The living room lights went out, and the television screen went black.

Kevin glanced at his phone. Thinking the smart home system had only glitched for a moment, he picked up the suitcase by the door and headed downstairs.

Not long afterwards, I rang him and said quietly, “Kevin, the lights won’t turn on.”

Erin came closer with the baby in her arms.

I heard her say, “Here she goes again.”

I looked up.

“It’s true.”

The baby in Erin’s arms suddenly started crying.

She gently patted him and said, “How much longer are you going to keep staying by her side? She does this every time she wants to keep you there.”

I stared at the block in my hand.

“I’m not. I…”

“Allison.”

Kevin’s voice dropped.

“We’re only going away for two days. Don’t start this again.”

“How long is two days?”

“We’ll be back soon.”

“Today?”

Erin didn’t say anything, but I heard her give a quiet laugh on the other end.

Kevin didn’t answer.

So I asked again, “Tomorrow?”

He sighed.

“Do you have to keep asking me that?”

A car horn sounded in the background as the driver urged them to hurry.

Kevin gave the driver the four-digit PIN, then spoke to me again, his tone harsher now.

“If you keep this up, I’m seriously going to consider leaving you.”

The block slipped from my hand and landed on my lap.

“If you leave me, does that mean you won’t come home anymore?”

Erin leaned closer to the phone.

“Kevin, ignore her. She’s just scared you won’t stay with her.”

Kevin cleared his throat.

There was nothing but exhaustion and impatience in his voice now.

“Allison, be good.”

Then he added, “Don’t open the door on your own. It’s not safe outside.”

I nodded.

“I’ll wait for you at home.”

“All right.”

I put down the phone.

The apartment fell completely silent.

I stayed on the carpet, staring at the door.

A long time passed before I picked up the phone again and rang Kevin.

He answered quickly.

“What now?”

“Kevin, there’s no power in the apartment. I’m scared.”

“I know. You’re going to tell me the lights are broken again.”

“The lights aren’t broken. The fridge light’s still on, but everything else is dark.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

Then I heard Erin.

“Kevin, she’s only trying to get you to turn round.”

“Allison.”

Kevin sounded irritated now.

“I’ve only just left, and you’ve already rung me twice. Can you stop being so clingy?”

“There really isn’t any power.”

“If you ring me again over something like this, I’m sending you back to the care centre.”

I stared at the black television screen and tried my best to explain.

“I don’t want to go there. I just want to turn the lights on.”

“Then leave them off.”

“Kevin…”

“I said that’s enough.”

The call ended.

I sat in the darkness, still holding the phone.

After a while, I whispered to myself, “Allison will be quiet.”

Outside, the sun was shining brightly.

Inside the apartment, the only light left was the faint glow slipping through the gap in the refrigerator door.