He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 05

He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 05

After seven years of whatever we were, Callum and I moved in together.

He had a place in downtown Silverbrook, close to my job.

He still brought up breaking up every few days.

Some mornings he’d tell me it was over. By the afternoon, he’d be dragging me to the Silverbrook Railway Museum as if nothing had happened.

He’d hold me at night and whisper, “We should end this.” By morning, he’d be in an apron, making me breakfast.

But I knew none of it was love.

It was protectiveness. Attachment. Guilt. Unease.

None of that was love. It was the itch of something unfinished.

Something in me was unfinished too.

A hole that had been open since my brother died, and one that nothing could ever fill.

The emptiness went straight through me, like wind through a hollow wall.

I started looking forward to the breakups. That was how sick it had gotten.

At least when Callum left, he always came back.

And every time he did, I could pretend it was more than guilt pulling him through the door.

Then one day, the cramps got so bad I had to leave work early.

The tracking app showed Callum at a French restaurant.

I thought maybe he was planning something for me.

So I pushed through the pain and went.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw him.

Sienna Langley was sitting across from him.

I couldn’t hear them through the glass.

Callum said something. Sienna laughed and swatted his arm.

He didn’t pull away. He was smiling—easy, loose, relaxed in a way I’d never seen.

They looked perfect together.

If Callum was ever going to love someone, it should’ve been her.

No secrets. No guilt dragging everything down. With her, love looked effortless.

I stood across the street, pain twisting through me, and watched them until I lost track of time.

It hit me then. I’d been holding him hostage for years.

And without realizing it, I was almost twenty-four.

It was time to stop pretending.

Callum came home that evening.

The hallway light was on. My suitcase was by the door.

He froze. Then he gripped the suitcase handle and started talking fast.

“Tessa set me up—I didn’t know she’d be there. I don’t have feelings for Sienna. We were just catching up, that’s all…”

Every word of it made perfect sense.

But I looked him in the eye and said the thing I’d never said before.

“Callum. Let’s break up.”

His voice died in his throat.

“…What?”

I dropped my gaze. “This has been broken from the start, Callum. You know that. It’s time to face reality.”

“You and I don’t have a future.”

I was the one without a future.

My birthday was three months away.

I was about to outlive my brother.

Callum’s eyes rimmed with red.

He grabbed my wrist and wouldn’t let go.

“You’re messing with me, right? This is payback—because I keep saying I want to break up… right? Babe, I get it. I was wrong. I’ll never say it again. I’ll never bring it up, I swear, okay?”

I looked up. “I mean it. We’re not getting back together.”

Callum let go of my wrist. He stepped back like I’d burned him.

His eyes were red, but he was still trying to hold himself together.

“Okay… okay. I respect that.”

“Take care of yourself, Maren. Please.”

That breakup lasted longer than any of the others.

Callum cut all contact.

Three months of silence.

The next time I heard his name, it was from a coworker who couldn’t wait to tell me.

“Did you hear? The Whitmore kid—the younger one, from the real estate family—he’s getting engaged!”

Moving fast enough to make it look personal. Like he was trying to prove a point.

“Who?” I asked before I could stop myself.

She said a name.

“Oh,” I said, and went back to wiping the counter.

I wiped for a long time. But the surface kept getting wet. Every time I cleared it, another drop fell, then another—tiny, perfect circles, the smallest lakes in the world.