Free Relentless (Elisabeth Reinhardt Book 1) by Nancy Alexander

creeping in and freaking me out.”
    “So,” Tanya said leaning closer and lowering her voice, “you think some bad things happened that you don’t know about?”
    “Yes, actually, that’s right. And now I’m worried you’re going to think I’m crazy,  I probably said too much to you about this already,” Gina said pulling back in her seat.
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Tanya leaned across the table to hold Gina’s hand, “You’re my girl, girlfriend; nothing’s going to get in the way of that. I’m just trying to understand what you’re saying. You've got one of the best memories I’ve ever seen. You remember lab reports and test dates and dosages and stuff better than any doc on the service. I just can’t get my head around you having memory issues,” Tanya replied.
    “This isn’t that kind of memory,” Gina told her, “My shrink says that trauma memory is in a different category altogether .” Then she grinned at her, “You just like to think I’m perfect, Tan, I guess I’ve got you fooled.”
    “Well,” Tanya added, “To be perfectly honest it scares me to think that some things happened to you that were so bad you’d have to forget them.
    “It scares me too,” Gina admitted, “I’m trying to put my life together in some kind of sequential order but that’s been hard.”
    Tanya frowned slightly and said, “You don’t know exactly how you got from there to here, right?”
    “That’s right . I know some things but not everything.”
    “Tell me what you do know, OK? Maybe just talking about it will help you remember,” Tanya said giving Gina’s hand a little squeeze.
    Gina stirred her coffee and glanced at her watch. “We don’t have much time, Tan, but I’ll try.” The crowd was thinning out, so no one was anxious for their table. She began , “The short story is that I’m starting to remember details of something bad that happened when I was 14. That’s been haunting me because things I don’t remember are jumping out at me when I least expect it.”
    Tanya moved closer and asked , “So is your therapist trying to help you get to those memories?”
    “Yes, but if I don’t remember them then I can’t talk about them, right? The memories are coming up on their own right now,” Gina explained.
    “So go ahead,” said Tanya, “what did you do after the bad thing happened?”
    “I don’t recall the exact details but I know I ended up at my school counselor’s house, that’s Mrs. Goodwin I’ve mentioned her before. She took me in and then later I moved in with a foster family in North Carolina.”
    “Oh, right,” Tanya said “You did tell me you’d lived in North Carolina. How long did you live there?”
    “I moved in with my foster family, the Bakers when I was 14 and lived with them till I graduated from college.”
    “Oh wow,” Tanya said, “that was a good long time. Sounds like you really got along with them.”
    “I did, they were wonderful. That family helped me in so many ways. They were kind and loving. They encouraged my schooling, they introduced me to religion; they did everything… I just can’t even tell you all the things they did for me,” Gina’s eyes filled with tears. “I am who and what I am today because of that family.”
    Tanya listened attentively, her warmth and concern evident on her face and in her voice. She settled back as if she had nothing to do in the whole world but sit at this table and listen to Gina. “That’s amazing, sugar, tell me more.”
    “Unlike my own family, the Bakers encouraged achievement in school and involvement in the community.  Both of the Bakers worked. Mr. Baker was an accountant for a local firm and Mrs. Baker worked as a nurse in a General Practitioner’s office. When I was 16, she got me a job there in the Doctor’s office. That was my first real exposure to medicine ‘cause my family didn’t believe in getting medical care and I had never even seen a doctor before I moved in with the