He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 03

He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 03

One day after school, a group of guys cornered me. They were laughing, yanking at my uniform.

I bolted. Callum was the first person I saw, and I threw myself at him, grabbing his arm.

I whipped around and yelled at them.

“This is my boyfriend! His family’s loaded—touch me again and you’re done!”

Callum went rigid.

Then he pushed me into the back seat, told the driver to go, and didn’t say a word the entire ride home.

The car door opened. Tessa—still young enough to worship her big brother—was standing on the porch.

She saw me first—sobbing, still latched onto Callum’s arm.

Then she looked at Callum, standing there stiff as a board, his ears burning red.

She hated me from that moment on.

In her eyes, I was scheming, shameless, and rotten to the core.

I was.

I wanted his love so badly.

I would’ve cracked my own chest open and stitched it beneath my ribs.

I never wanted to lose it.

So I hid the real me even deeper.

I played bright and bubbly. Not a shadow in sight.

I held that mask in place for a day. Then a week. Then a year.

The first time I slipped was right after the SATs.

Three days into our relationship.

I couldn’t stand not knowing where he was, so I tried to install a couple’s tracking app on his phone.

Real-time location tracking. App monitoring. Screen sharing…

Callum took one look and frowned.

“Wait—are we dating, or are you running surveillance on me? This is insane… Maren, where did you even get this idea?”

My pulse spiked. I backpedaled instantly, laughed it off, and said I’d seen it trending online.

Callum watched me for a long moment. Then he exhaled.

“You scared me. I thought something was actually wrong.”

He ruffled my hair. “If you wanna know where I am, just call me. Anytime. Okay?”

But after that, the anxiety only got worse.

I had a radar for it—for the exact moment someone’s affection fell short of what I needed.

Like how Mom never let me try on a single outfit without picking it apart.

Like how I’d walk through the door every day and call out to my dad on the couch.

He wouldn’t look up from the TV. Wouldn’t even grunt.

Callum was good to me.

But he never reached for my hand first. Never kissed me first.

So when he went to the restroom, I couldn’t stop myself from going through his phone.

While I’d been ordering our food, he’d been texting someone.

I knew about the childhood friend. The girl.

Their families went way back, but Callum barely mentioned her around me.

I had no idea they talked about me.

[When are you going to end it with Maren already?]

My thumb froze on the screen.

I scrolled further back.

That was when I found out.

Callum hadn’t transferred to our school for me.

He’d come because of his brother.

Callum had idolized his brother his whole life.

Then he found out that a new hire at his brother’s company had jumped off the roof on his second day.

The rumors all pointed to his brother. Callum’s first instinct was rage.

He started digging, determined to prove them wrong.

What he found was worse. The dead man was the same age as his brother. They’d gone to school together.

His brother—polished, well-mannered, everyone’s golden boy—had been a bully.

The new hire had clawed his way through school, earned his degree, and landed a job at a company people would kill to work for.

He thought he’d finally outrun it—that he’d left the nightmare of those years behind.

Then he looked up and saw his new boss.

The same face from all his nightmares.

He left a note.

And a younger sister.

She was Callum’s age.

[That was your brother’s fault! It had nothing to do with you!]

[You told me yourself—you don’t love her. You’re only with her out of guilt.]

[Stop dragging it out. The longer you wait, the harder she’ll be to shake. One day you won’t be able to leave at all.]

I locked his phone.