Chapter 1
Nick sat there at a table in Tabu with his band mates, Howie, AJ, and Brian They were hanging out after finishing up their new album. They were the Backstreet Boys. They knew they could go to Tabu and not be bothered since Howie owned the club and Orlando was their home base. There was an occasional autograph here and there but mostly everyone respected their privacy. Nick drank his beer and looked around. He may be at a table with his three best friends but he never felt more alone. His wife disappeared a year ago and he hasn’t been able to find her. He doesn’t want to give up but he knows that it is possible she’s not coming back to him. He hadn’t received divorce papers or anything to show that she’s still alive. He never gave her a reason to leave him. He sat there at the table and watched Brian with his wife, Leighanne. He looked around and saw two girls come in and look around and sat down at a table. He got up and went to the bar and sat down. He ordered another beer. He felt someone come up next to him. He looked and saw one of the girls he saw come in. She looked familiar to him but he didn’t recognize her. She smiled at him.
“You are Nick Carter, aren’t you,” she asked.
“Yes,” Nick said.
“I’m Ashley, I’m a fan,” she said holding out her hand. He shook her hand.
“Do you want an autograph or something?” Nick asked.
“Nah, I just saw you and you looked like you were about to break down, I can usually tell when someone is about to, I thought if you wanted to talk about it, I am a good listener,” Ashley said. What Nick didn’t know was that Ashley was really his wife, Hayley, although she has no memory of being Hayley. She had been in a car accident and got amnesia and needed plastic surgery for her face.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Nick said. Ashley smiled at him and took his hand and pulled him out of the club and they went to the beach and walked along the shoreline.
“So what’s going on in that head of yours that makes you look like you lost a best friend,” Ashley said.
“I’m married, but my wife left me a year ago, no note, no nothing, no divorce papers, nothing, not one sign that she’s still alive, I have people looking for her, but nothing has turned up, I loved her so much, I still do, I never gave her one reason to leave, I never cheated, she seems so content as my wife that I didn’t think she could be unhappy, I grew up with her, I’ve known her since we were babies, we were best friends up til a few years after I joined the group and things became more than friends, we became a couple, fell in love, got married, she became pregnant but lost the baby but she seemed so determined that one miscarriage wasn’t going to stop her from having a family with me, I just don’t know what happened, I don’t know what I did wrong to make her leave, we never fought, we never argued,” Nick said. Ashley looked at him.
