Stanley squinted his eyes and said, “No, that wouldn’t be necessary. She already made it clear that she would not be wasting her time on me, so you don’t have to let her know.”
Natalie nodded understandingly.
Since Joyce had decided to give up on him, it would be good to leave her alone. It was not an easy decision for Joyce, and it took her quite a while to get over it, so Natalie did not want to disrupt her peaceful life now.
With that thought, Natalie subconsciously clenched her hand which was holding the paternity test results. The fact that Joyce gave up on Stanley made Natalie think if it was also time for her to give up on Shane and their marriage.
Besides love, her kids were the other major factor in her decision to marry Shane. She thought they were his children, so she did not want to deprive him of a chance to be their father.
Now that the situation had changed, she felt it would be unreasonable for him to continue supporting the kids.
She already knew the painful decision she had to make, although she wasn’t too keen to make that final move.
Thus, she decided she would wait for the report from the private investigator she hired before making that decision.
With that in mind, she took a deep breath to calm herself. She then kept the paternity test results in her bag and turned to Stanley. “Stanley, it is getting late. I shall make my move. I’ll catch up with you again sometime.”
Just as she was leaving, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her head, and fragments of blurred images flashed by in her mind.
Stanley saw Natalie grimaced and groaned in pain, so he hurried over to support her. “What’s wrong, Nat?”
“My head hurts, and I keep seeing weird stuff,” Natalie remarked hoarsely, limped in his arms.
Stanley felt her forehead but could not detect a high temperature, so he ruled out fever as a cause. “What sort of weird stuff?” he probed on as he took her pulse.
Suddenly, he detected an unusual sign in her pulse. He narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are you pregnant, Nat?”
“Yup, more than a month,” Natalie replied shyly as she lightly caressed her stomach.
“So you are aware of it.” Stanley’s eyes dimmed as he looked at her.
“I only realized that two days ago,” Natalie confessed.
“I am glad you are aware. I may not be a gynecologist, but I do have some basic knowledge about pregnancy. You have to be extra mindful during the first trimester.” Stanley reminded.
“I know.” Natalie looked down casted as there was a possibility she might even decide not to keep this baby.
“Oh, tell me more about what you were seeing.” Stanley patiently probed on.
“Just some blurred images that evoked a strange sense of familiarity.”
Blurred images?
Stanley’s eyes narrowed as he heard her explanation. Most doctors would have dismissed that as hallucination, but as a neuro specialist and a professional hypnotherapist, he had a deeper understanding of the human brain and its memories.
From the brief description Natalie gave, he could tell it was a sign of her recovering from a memory loss, and the blurred images she saw were snippets of her memories.
What amazed him was the fact that she had a memory loss, and she was not even aware of that.
That could only mean her memory loss was not due to head trauma but was induced by hypnosis.
When was her memory wiped out and why?
Natalie’s case piqued his curiosity, and a smile crept upon his face.
His unexpected smile sent chills down Natalie’s back. She remembered the scene captured in the surveillance footage showing his attack on Shane. He had that similar smile when he was stabbing Shane. The only difference was it was much eerier during the attack. His smile was a little gentler this time around.
“What do you think is wrong with me, Stanley?” Natalie shook her head and asked. “Recently, I had frequent episodes like these. The pain and images come and go in a flash.”
