Chapter 17: Please Believe Me...

*REAL HADLEY'S POV*

After my run-in with the bitch in my body, I try to figure out what to do...I decide telling Mason is too risky.  He might not believe me and he might even throw me out...so I call Evie.  I call her number and even though she thinks it's odd, she agrees to meet me at the local pond.

When I get there, I walk up to Evie and almost want to cry.  I have really missed my friend...and I didn't even realize it.  How crazy is that?

Even though I am damn near emotional, Evie is all business.

"What can I do for you, Briana?"

"Before I say what I need to say, I need you to open your mind...way up...I need you to please consider what I'm about to tell you." I start.

She furrows her eyebrows and gives me a look that clearly says she's not going to put up with any bullshit.  

Ugh, maybe it was a mistake to come to her first...but who else could I have come to?

"Go ahead," she tells me expectantly.

I take a deep breath and pray to whoever might be listening before I start speaking, "You know how it's been really weird with Hadley because she's lost her memory?"

"Yeah..." she replies.

"Well...okay, swear you'll keep an open mind," I ask again.

"Look, I don't have time for this," Evie says.

Damn...I am treating her like my best friend when in her eyes, I'm not...I need to back off...but how the hell am I going to do that?

"I'm sorry...wait, please.  What if I told you Hadley has been different because that isn't Hadley?" I tell her.

"Okay bitch, you're crazy," Evie says and starts to walk away.

I grab her arm and shout, "Please, Evie, listen to me."

She turns around, but she looks fed up, "Okay, go ahead.  Give me one good reason why I shouldn't punch you right now."

Insert awkward joke here: "Well for one thing I'm holding a kid...but that's besides the point, Ev, I swear, the reason I know this is because I am Hadley."

She starts laughing...but not in that "wow, this is hilarious" way, but in that "this is unbelievable" way.  Oh, this is not good.

"Oh bitch, you are messing with the wrong chick, let me tell you," she starts, "Number one, don't call me Ev...it's Evie, and that's only to my friends, so you can call me....nothing...because I don't want to talk to you.  Number two, don't think for a second that I don't know exactly what your game is."

"What?" I start.  What is she talking about?

"I have seen the way you have been looking at my brother.  You horned your way into their house and are taking advantage of his good heart...what are you, some gold-digging whore?  Are you planning on getting Mason to knock you up or something?  Let me tell you, it's not going to happen.  My brother is completely devoted to his wife - my best friend, who I have known for my entire life.  To think you are her...it's laughable to be honest.  You are nothing like her..."

Tears start to rim my eyes...and I can't help it...this is my best friend and she's not believing me.

"Evie, please...I remember everything now...I can prove it.  Do you remember when we were kids - our dads used to take us fishing here...and I slipped and fell in and you jumped in after me even though you didn't know how to swim and both our dads had to jump in and save us?"

"Look, I don't know who you are and where you came from, but you are sick..." Her voice has gotten soft and she is speaking calmly again, which for normal people would be a good thing, but I know that she is just about done with this conversation.

"Evie...please..." I can just barely whisper.  She isn't going to believe me.

"No, don't...don't talk to me, don't ever call me again...look, you need help.  If I were you, I would get out of my brother and sister-in-law's house as soon as you can."

With those words, she turns away and I let the tears fall where they're going to.  How could my best friend not believe me?

God, what am I going to do?  If Evie didn't believe me, who will?

As I'm walking through town, I run into my mom outside the grocery store.

She smiles warmly at me, and I remember how kind she was when I was living in that shelter - thinking I was Briana...she has to believe me.

"Hello, sweetie!  How are you two doing?" she greets me.

"I was just looking for you, actually," I start.

"I was thinking about you too.  Are you going to press charges against Trevor?" she asks.

Oh man, I hadn't even thought about that...

"Um, I need to talk to you about something else...and it's a big thing...I know why Hadley doesn't have her memory."

She looks confused - rightfully so, "How do you know about that?"

"I know because I lost my memory like her before," I start, "...but I got my memory back...and...I am Hadley."

"What?!"

"I swear, I am your daughter..."

She looks at me with concern, "Sweetie, I know with what you've been through you want that to be true, but it just isn't."

"But...it's true...I swear...Keely isn't my daughter...I have an older sister, an older brother, I grew up in a turquoise bedroom with butterflies..."

I desperately look in her face in the hopes of seeing some recognition of some kind...but I see nothing but concern.

"Stop this, immediately," she begins what I know as a chastisement.

"But..."

"How dare you?" she starts, "To think that Mason and Hadley took you in when you had nowhere else to go...that I felt sorry for you in the shelter...and this is how you repay our kindness?  Shame on you."

"Please believe me, " I beg her, "if you won't, no one will."

"Stop this, right now!" she starts again, "Who do you think you are?  Preying on a family going through a difficult time?  I think you should leave."

She turns away and gets in her car.  Then I see my father standing at the door of the grocery.

"What is this?" He asks.

"Daddy, please believe me..." I start crying.  I can't help it.

"Miss, you just need to leave our family alone.  We've been through enough."

He gets in the car with my mother and they drive off.

I am left in a heap of sobs, which makes Keely cry too.

Great, now what am I going to do?