XVI

CHAPTER 16

"You're awake" she said and leaned closer to the patient, who looked at the surroundings. The female called the doctors to check the patient. Who then helps sip some water to help her dry throat from being in a comatose state for more than a year.

"I want you to follow my finger" a male doctor said, he started moving his finger from left and right three times and the patient followed.

"Please give my hand a squeeze, it doesn't matter if it's soft, just try squeezing it" the doctor gave another instruction.

"Could you try to wiggle your toes for me?" He asked and the patient tried and did it.

"So how is she now?" The female asked the male doctor.

"We will need to do some test and also to see how she will recover" he paused and look at the patient who is looking her surrounding, looking so confused, "I think the patient will need time to recover some of her memories, she have been in coma for a year" the doctor told her what he think.

She thanked him and sent them out. She came beside the patient and studied her. The patient looked at her and smiled.

"Do you remember your name?" The female asked and she nodded yet felt a little pain from nodding, she asked her to tell her and avoid nodding because it is hurting herself.

"I'm Alexis" she answered and looked at the female in front of her. "What happened to me Livy?" She asked with curiosity why she was in this place.

"You were in a plane crash and have been in a coma for more than a year. I'm so happy to see you awake now" the female explained then hugged Alexis who hugged her back.

"Why can't I remember everything? Ahhh" Alexis groaned and put her hand on her head feeling pain, the female hurriedly assisted her to lay back down on her bed.

The doctors took some tests and revealed the results as soon as it came out. They told the female that the patient is experiencing Post-traumatic amnesia, explaining to her that her memories will come back within a period of time.

They advised her to not let the patient think too much of her past because it will cause her moderate to severe headache. And also the patient was in a vegetative state for a long period of time so she needed to have her therapy to get her back on her feet.

A week had passed and the investigations still didn't find a clue to find Alexis. Her father is frustrated, it's been hard and tiring work. Suddenly Maximus received a call from Ricardo.

"Ricky" he greeted in the line, he is currently holding his grandchild who is drinking her milk by the bottle.

Her mother was currently out with her friends and some people they are meeting. Gretta and him are the one babysitting their grandchild who is growing beautiful day by day.

"We found some clue in the South East part of Asia" Ricardo said, he suddenly stood up upon hearing the good news making the little angel loosen the grip from her feeding bottle who suddenly cried.

He tried making her stop crying, Ricky on the other line bothered by the cry of his granddaughter, Gretta heard the commotion and hurriedly came by the pool where her husband and granddaughter are in.

"What happened?" Gretta asked her husband, who looked bothered by the crying baby.

She took the baby and tried calming her down, she saw the feeding bottle by the ground, she picked it up and called one servant to clean it up and make a new one for their little angel.

Maximus sighed in relief of her wife making the baby stop crying, he hugged her and gave her a kiss on her temple and started talking to Ricardo once again.

"So tell me what you know" he said and Ricardo told him the clues his men found out.

He told him about the surveillance videos they found about a private plane landing on the peninsula. They are not sure yet which country but this brought down the area to a smaller scope. It is great news, there is a big possibility her daughter is still alive, they need to figure out who the hell took her.

"Uncle, what made you smile?" Julia asked him, they arrived a few minutes ago and everyone was inside and she came to see her uncle Max.

Suddenly her uncle gave her a tight squeezing hug. It made her confused. What made the man so happy, is he drunk?

"We have good news..." He said, making Julia listen, "...Sam's dad called and told me they found some clue that could possibly pinpoint where your cousin is," he explained with a wide smile. Julia felt happy about hearing it, however her uncle told her not to tell Samantha or anyone yet, because if ever it is a deadend for our search they will be upset about it.

They needed to be sure first before sharing it to everyone. The two talked for more and planned to fly there as soon as Ricardo added more details about their findings.

In another part of the country.

The female is helping Alexis try to maintain her balance. Her once buffed and fit body shrinked. He lost a lot of weight and muscle after being in a coma for more than a year. She thought that after she finishes her therapy and gets back on her feet she will go to the gym and workout again.

She remembers some but still a lot of missing memories. She thought of the blonde who kept appearing in her dream, calling her name. She knew it's a blonde and beautiful woman, however her face was always blurry. She felt frustrated for not remembering the blonde, she tried to think hard but ended up having agonizing pain.

"Are you okay?" the female asked when she noticed Alexis silent and spacing out.

"I'm alright, let's try again" she answered and tried to walk for a few steps while leaning on the wall to balance herself.

"Anyway, we need to move back to Europe" the female said, Alexis staring at her curiously why. "You'll be on your feet in no time if you do therapy there. It is more advanced there compared to this place" she explained which Alexis nodded understanding her reasons.

She is the only person she trusts for now, her memories are still in a blurr. She can't even remember the names of her parents and relatives, she doesn't understand why this woman beside her is the first person her brain remembers. She also feels a little off with her.

In the next two days Alexis and the female left the place where she was staying for more than a year and a few months. They both moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Switzerland is one of the best when it comes to physiotherapy.

When they moved they rented a flat, not the cheap one. The female then signed them up for the best physical therapist she could find. She wanted to make Alexis get back on her feet once again, so the best one is the right one to pick.

"Ouch" Alexis yelped in pain when she tried to walk to the kitchen to get herself some water.

The female hurriedly helped her up. Alexis thanked her, the female thought of hiring some servants for them, she knew she can't do this alone. She grew up with people doing things for her, not her doing a hard job.

"Here's your water, call me when you need something" she said and Alexis nodded. She knew to herself she needed all the help she needed while she was in this situation.

The female suddenly felt like throwing up, she ran to the nearest sink and let it all out. Alexis staring at her felt worried. She washed her mouth and wiped it off.

She came next to a worrying Alexis telling her she's alright, but Alexis doubted that.

"You've been trying to make sure I'm fine and forgot about yourself. Please get a check up, you have been throwing up before we moved here.

"Okay, after your therapy I'll go for a check up" she made sure to make Alexis feel relieved.

On the next day it is the first session of Alexis' physical therapy. Alexis will have a 40-60 minutes therapy session, thrice a week. The therapist advised them not to overdo it because if she tried so hard and kept falling, it would take her longer to be on her feet once again.

Maximus and Julia left America and came to Asia, they are meeting up Samantha's dad. They had found clue after clue, and located a place where it was possible to find Alexis.

"I'm excited to see my cousin again," Julia uttered with happiness.

"Me too Let's go and get your hiding cousin," Maximus joked, making Julia giggle.

They are now driving to a hotel where Ricardo is waiting for them in Bangkok. They will be searching two parts of Thailand where the clues are pointing so they will be discussing who will go where.

It was not a long drive, probably about twenty minutes drive from the airport. When they arrived, some men who served Ricardo approached them and assisted them to where their boss was. They rode an elevator and arrived at the floor.

"Ricky" Maximus greeted his friend who gave him a hug and nodded at Julia to acknowledge her presence. She had been spending time with these two older men about locating Alexis and she knew how close they were. She even heard them talk about buying a yacht for Amalie on her second birthday when they were drunk.

"So there are two places we need to search. You need to choose which place you want to search either, Prachuap Khiri Khan or Krabi then we will start our investigation tomorrow" Ricardo said letting Maximus choose but he called for Julia to choose which place.

He told her to pick the one where she thought she felt some connection, so she decided, "Let's go on Krabi, I have a good feeling about it," she said, making the two older men nod.

"Okay so you two will be searching at Krabi and I with my men will search in Prachuap Khiri Khan" Ricardo repeated to make it clear. They then decided to call it a day and prepare for their search tomorrow.

The sun is almost setting, Julia staring at sunset by the window of her hotel room. She thought about her cousin who she will see soon, she is still wondering who is the person behind her disappearance. Why didn't the person report about it, and why not contact their family.

Her phone rang, someone is calling her via facetime.

"Julia, why didn't you tell me you found a clue about Alex?" The blonde asked as soon as she answered the call.

"Why are you up at this hour?" She didn't answer and pointed out how early the blonde woke up. It's 5:30 pm in Bangkok about to turn dark while it's 3:30am in Los Angeles.

"Well Hope woke up and wanted to get fed, she doesn't want her bottle but my nipple" the blonde explained yet repeated her question again, Julia sighs and answered.

"Uncle doesn't want you all to be let down, so we want to make sure of it first. I think I knew who told you, my wife who couldn't keep a secret to her best friend" Julia said, who thought Donna told Samantha about keeping it as a secret, because she heard her and Maximus talking on the phone about the clues they found.

"No, it's not Donna. Stefano told me" Samantha replied making Julia raise a brow.

How can her cousin know when it's only her, Donna and her uncle knew other than Samantha's father. She is confused how Stefano knew about their secret of finding the clues. She needed to see him when she got back  and asked about what he knew.

The next day they departed separately, Ricardo will ride by land going to Prachuap Khiri Khan, while Julia and her uncle will ride by plane going to Krabi because it will take them half a day to drive and get there. They just now landed and are on their way to search the ground. Maximus sent his people to search the place. They have searched half the place for the entire day and yet couldn't find Alexis, it is now night time and they decided to stop the search and need to book a place to stay. Tomorrow they will be searching for a hotel, inn and rented houses of this place and that's it. They just hope either Prachuap Khiri Khan or Krabi is the place where Alexis is staying.

"Let's call Ricky and ask for his search, maybe he found some other clues" Maximus suggested and Julia nodded.

They contacted Ricardo and asked him about his operation on the other hand to their disappointment he and his team haven't found anything. According to him they might need a few days to finally fully search the place.

"We need to search two to three days to turn things all over the place and find my daughter's girlfriend" Ricardo said and the two agreed to search thoroughly.

They search Krabi for another day and they are now at a beach, the Phra Nang Beach and it has several inns and rented houses to look for. They thought they would be able to search the island if they divided their teams in three groups.

"Julia, take five people with you and Paul, take some men with you to search and I will have the remaining men with me. We need to move quick" Maximus directed and everyone nodded.

Maximus will search the hotels, Paul will search the inns and Julia will look at each rented house. They spent hours investigating, everyone tired, thirsty and hungry so Julia decided to take a break.

"Everyone, we will rest, eat and drink for half an hour and we will continue our search," she said, making everyone nod in agreement.

She bought them food and drinks from the current location they are in. She left and walked to the pool area and breathed. She is exhausted from the past days she is here in Thailand. She misses her wife too. She sighs and looks up in the sky staring at the bluish sky reminding her of her cousin.

"Maxxy" she sighed.

After some time they finally got back to work, bringing some water with them not to get dehydrated with this warm weather. It's hotter compared to what they are used to in the US. They are now in a private and rental house, it's a huge house with two floors and has its own big pool to dive in with this hot weather.

She directed three of his people to search the grounds while she brought two people with her to search the second floor. The owner let them search the place and told them not to break anything or they will be paying what they had damaged twice the price.

Julia and her men divided to search the area faster. She is now checking a room that has a bed not yet fixed and some clothes are on it. It belongs to a girl she thought whens he saw a skirt and dress laying on the bed.

The owner told them that someone is currently renting the house, they've been staying in the house for a year or so already, so Julia thought her cousin is probably here compared to the other places they came where the people who rented there only stayed for a month till three months.

"Ma'am!" one of her men yelled, making her get out of the room and came to meet them.

"Did you find anything?" She asked as soon as she met them.

The one who yelled for her pointed to a room, Julia entered and they followed suit. Julia gasped seeing the room that has a hospital bed and some apparatus.

Some of the medical equipment is pushed to the corner, the wires aren't placed correctly. It looks like they were just pulled out and the patient was moved quickly out of this place.

Julia with her men search the things inside, there are few papers left. It's the medical tests taken from a patient who was here, The papers doesn have any patients name on it, which Julia groan.

"Ma'am here I found something" a blonde guy called out to her attention.

He was holding a folder with documents inside. He gave it to Julia for her to check the papers inside the folder. Julia read them carefully until she saw a name.

"Omg Alexis was here" she mumbles when she read Alexis name on one of the documents, she kept reading and saw a photo inside where Alexis was laying on the bed with oxygen on. She has a lot of bruises and looks hardly beaten because of her wounds on her face,arms and legs. To Julia this was taken probably after she was found and brought to a hospital.

She hurriedly called her uncle but ordered her men to still search the place, Alexis might still be here somewhere.

"Uncle I found where Alexis was hidden, I'll send you the address. We are still searching but the house looks empty" she explained by phone.

"I'll call Ricky and I will be there in a few and help search. Good work Julia" her uncle said and ended the call.

He arrived after twenty minutes and ran inside the rented house. He searches for Julia who is now inside a room, looking inside an envelope where there are more documents. It is the files of Alexis' test results over the years showing she was in a comatose state and her body is becoming weaker as time goes by.

"Julia" he called out and Julia gave him the documents she found.

"We searched the place and we found no one. We called the owner to ask where the people who rented this place were and he doesn't have a clue. He was offered a big amount of cash and didn't ask for more" she explained while her uncle checked each document as well as checked the dates the tests were done.

He felt pained reading some of the results that said her daughter was getting weaker and weaker while she was in a comatose state. He doesn't know if he should tell his wife and daughter-in-law about this. He is worried his wife would go ill when she knew what was happening to their only child for the past year.

"I think they left when they learned we're coming here," Julia said. She felt like the person who took her cousin knew that they were coming to this country and left before they could find them, but why?

"Let's go. We need to investigate the flights that left this country for the past month. I know there could be records, unless the person who took your cousin wiped out the data. Julia, I think we are on par with a wealthy person" her uncle uttered with obvious worry.

They left and met with Ricardo at the hotel they stayed over when they arrived in Thailand. Everyone discussed the gathered information and planned the next move they'd do to locate Alexis and the person behind it.

Back in Switzerland where Alexis is having her physical therapy for weeks now and is starting to walk little by little on her own, without using a cane or anyone. She is happy with her progress. She is also gonna have her health check up soon for the memories of people she remembers a moment ago while enjoying her french toast.

"Why didn't you let my family know about finding me?" She argued with the female as soon as she came back.

She has been going to her regular check up, however Alexis doesn't know anything about the results because the girl is keeping it a secret. Alexis came to grab her by the arm and confronted the woman.

"Why Livy?" She asked with a tight grip to the woman's arm.

The female flinches, feeling the pain of the tightness of the grip. This is what worried her when Alexis started remembering the past.

"It hurts, please. I'm pregnant, it’s yours"