He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 11

He Took the Memory Potion Instead of Me Chapter 11

I lifted my hand and rested it on his back.

He shook harder.

“Callum, I know you probably don’t remember any of it after the potion. But thank you. For staying

with me all those years, even though you didn’t love me.”

Callum kept shaking his head.

“It was fake… The potion-it was just herbal tea. Something to calm you down, help you sleep. I..I never forgot you. Not for a second. I just-the reasons are… complicated.”

I blinked at him. Then I looked past his shoulder.

The sky was black, punched through with tiny points of starlight.

Like light leaking in from somewhere else.

I thought about it. “Okay. I think I can guess.”

A long silence. Then I kept going.

“You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die? I’ve been lying here

a while, and I think mine did. Pretending to be normal-pretending to be fine-it’s exhausting. I can’t do it anymore.”

“So I’m done pretending.”

“I shouldn’t keep the ugly stuff locked inside. I should let it out.”

“So when I go back to Pine Hollow, first I’m trashing the house. Then I’m gonna put on a little show for Mom and Dad with a kitchen knife.”

“All they ever wanted was a daughter who shut up, behaved, and gave everything away. If they had their way, I’d have to walk on eggshells just to take a breath.”

“But I almost died tonight, and I figured something out. Even if I gave them everything, they’d just want more. So I might as well go the other way-cause so much chaos that whenever I stop for a day, they’ll think, ‘Wow. She didn’t start anything today. What a great kid.’”

Callum was quiet for a moment. Then he spoke.

“I’ve got plans for my brother too.”

“The law can’t touch him. He doesn’t care about public opinion. But he can’t get rid of family. He

d something terrible, and someone has to hold him accountable-sometimes it takes a real monster to bring down someone that vile. We used to pretend we were the perfect brothers. Now I’m going after his shares, his property, all of it.”

“Then there’s Tessa.”

“That girl has way too much free time. Kids with too much time on their hands are always sticking their noses into other people’s business. Tomorrow I’m hiring tutors. Piano, competition math, karate-I’ll pack her schedule so tight she won’t have the energy to meddle.”

I pictured Tessa, buried alive under homework and piano scales.

I laughed. A real one, small and quiet.

“Then there’s Sienna… I think I need to cut her off completely.”

“We’re adults, not dolls that belong together just because someone thinks we match.”

“We’re childhood friends. That’s it. But every conversation turns into a headline, and every headline turns into an engagement announcement… It’s like some horror movie where looking at someone means you’re married. Terrifying. Honestly, I might just end the friendship. Clean break. Safer that way.”

Quiet settled over us again. The comfortable kind.

Something occurred to me. “Wait-how did you find me? I threw my phone away.”

“The necklace.”

I looked down. The little locomotive pendant sat cool against my skin.

Callum had given it to me the first day we were together.

“There’s… uh, a tracker in it.”

He rubbed his nose. “I put it there.”

I stared at him.

From the very first day…

“So…” His voice was careful. “Can we… get back together?”

The wind picked up, pushing his hair across his forehead.

I shook my head.

“No.”

Callum’s eyes closed. Everything in him went slack.

He slid down and lay beside me.

We lay on the rooftop, shoulders touching, staring up at the sky.

The wind nudged the empty bottle away from us. It rolled off cheerfully, like it had somewhere to

I turned my head toward him. He turned his toward me.

“Then let’s just leave it like this.”

He smiled, just barely. “The longer we drag this out, the harder we’ll be to shake. One day we won’t

be able to leave at all. We’ll just stay tangled up in this-whatever this is-until we die.”

“At least that way, we won’t hurt anyone else.”

That was fine.

If what we had was twisted, then let it be twisted.

There was never that much light in the world to begin with.

Why did love have to be bright and clean? It just had to make you feel alive.

I closed my eyes.

Somewhere far away, a train whistle sounded-long, slow, lingering.

It traveled across the whole city, carrying something from the past all the way into whatever came

next.