Five Years As An Amnesiac Bride Chapter 01

Five Years As An Amnesiac Bride Chapter 01

I had a hereditary condition. Every Christmas, I forgot the people closest to me.

I had been with Ethan Holt for five years, and every time it happened, he patiently took me back to all the places that mattered to us, helping me fall in love with him all over again.

I felt so guilty that I started keeping a journal.

The day my condition struck again, I brought the journal I had finished writing and rushed to Ethan’s office. Smiling, I said, “This time, my journal remembered you for me.”

But there was no smile in Ethan’s eyes.

He rubbed his temples wearily. After a long silence, he finally spoke in a low voice.

“Sylvia, Lila is pregnant. I have to take responsibility for her. Once she gives birth, I’ll send her out of the country.”

“You’re going to forget anyway. Just put up with it for this year. Next year, we can go back to the way we were.”

***

The man standing in front of me felt completely different from the man in my journal.

Even though I no longer had the memories of loving him for years, a real, sharp ache still spread through my chest in that moment.

Ethan kept talking.

“What happened between Lila and me happened while we were under the influence of alcohol. She grew up without a family, just like you. She said she doesn’t want to terminate the pregnancy, and I respect her choice.”

“To make it up to you, I’ll stay with her until the baby is born. After I send her and the child out of the country, I won’t have any contact with her other than the money I’m supposed to send every month.”

When I still stood there in a daze, Ethan sighed.

He stepped forward, trying to pull me into his arms.

I backed away again and again until there was nowhere left to go. Only then did I shout, “Don’t touch me!”

Ethan stopped.

But he was still too close, and the woodsy scent on Ethan almost surrounded me.

For no reason, the image of Ethan and Lila Bennett tangled together in bed flashed through my mind.

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

“You’re filthy. You really are filthy.”

Ethan’s face darkened at once.

He knocked the journal out of my hand, his voice cold enough to cut.

“I made one mistake while I was drunk. Do you really have to act like this?”

“Before this year, all you had was that stupid journal you wrote in every day to remember fragments of our relationship. For the past five years, wasn’t I the one who patiently helped you remember every single time? Did I ever call you stupid? Did I ever say you were a burden?”

I stared hard at Ethan. I did not want to cry, but the tears still slipped out on their own.

When Ethan saw my tears, irritation flashed across his face.

He deliberately looked away, and his gaze fell on the journal that had accidentally opened on the floor.

With just one glance, he saw what was written inside.

[Ethan Holt is the most important person in your life. Don’t forget him.]

[The more you write down, the fewer places he’ll have to take you back to. That way, Ethan won’t be so tired.]

Ethan stiffened, as if he had finally realized he had said the wrong thing.

But he did not apologize. Instead, he looked back at me, his tone somewhere between coaxing and warning.

“No matter how much you fight me on this, my decision won’t change. The only thing I can promise you is that our wedding will go on as planned.”

“The doctor said Lila is still in her first trimester and at risk of miscarriage. I’m going to take care of her for the next few days. You should use that time to think through the pros and cons, too.”

With that, Ethan turned and left.

The moment the door closed, I collapsed onto the floor, clutching my chest as my heart pounded out of control, the pain so intense it nearly suffocated me.

A gust of wind stirred the journal. I looked at the pages as they flipped open.

On the page was the wedding date I had deliberately marked in bold, afraid I would forget it after another episode.

It was one week away.