My Amnesiac Wife Slips Up

On the night of my birthday, I got a photo from Tyler Pattison, the college student my wife, Helen Watkins, had been keeping. In the photo, my wife lay topless in his arms, her face still flushed. Tyler: [Helen loves me. Why do you insist on holding on and refusing to let go?] I stared at the photo, expressionless, and forwarded it to my wife. [Is this what you want?] [Fine. I'll let you two have each other.] She'd forgotten that our marriage was something she had wanted with all her heart, something she had begged and pleaded for. Since she loved her freedom so much, I would give it back to her. Chapter 1 It was midnight, and Helen Watkins still hadn't come home. I picked up my phone and called her. There was no answer the first time. Or the second. Or the third. It wasn't until the seventh try that the call finally went through. Before I could say a word, her impatient voice came down the line, "Are you ever going to give it a rest, Jordan?! God, you're so annoying!" The deafening beat of music pounded in the background, but it wasn't nearly as grating as the coldness in her words. I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on the phone. "It's already midnight. Don't forget what you promised me." My voice was flat, but inside, I couldn't calm down. Helen and I had already filed our marriage license. All that was left was the wedding. But right at that critical moment, she fell for someone else and refused, no matter what, to come back home. I knew I couldn't stop her, so I made her one request. I asked her for one month. For that month, we would treat each other the way we used to. If, when the month was up, she still hadn't remembered our past, or still didn't feel the slightest thing for me, I would file for divorce myself. That's right. Helen had lost her memory. After we got married, a car accident left her with a head injury. She forgot everything, including her feelings for me. Then a college student by the name of Tyler Pattison came along. Helen fell hopelessly for him. She brought him into high society and bought him a car and a house, showering him with every luxury. Tyler was frighteningly calculating, too. Somehow, he'd found my contact information. He was constantly showing off the time he spent with Helen. Late at night, when everything was quiet, he would send me long, gushing messages and photos. Tyler: [Jordan, Helen and I are serious about each other. Please stop clinging to her.] Tyler: [She doesn't love you at all. Why won't you let her go?!] Tyler: [Do you really think she can be happy tied to you by some family marriage deal?!] A family marriage deal? What Tyler didn't know was that in my marriage to Helen, I had never been the one doing the chasing. She was the one who pursued me. Our families had been close friends for generations, and Helen and I had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. If it weren't for that car accident, Helen and I would have gone on living happily ever after. But life doesn't deal in what-ifs. When she heard I was willing to divorce her, Helen hesitated again and again. In the end, for the sake of her future with Tyler, she swallowed her disgust for me and reluctantly agreed. I set two conditions of my own. First, she had to be home by midnight every night. Second, for that month, she couldn't be intimate with any other man. If she couldn't manage that, I would never agree to the divorce. And now, only a few days had gone by. "Jordan, get this straight. You might be my husband on paper, but I don't love you at all. What gives you the right to make demands of me?!" Helen scoffed. "Don't you know that every time I come home and see your face, it makes me sick?" She hurled the vilest words at me without a second thought, not caring in the least whether they hurt me. I clenched my jaw hard, forcing myself not to lose my composure. A young man's annoyed voice came through the receiver, whiny and pouting, "Helen, if you make one more phone call, I'm really going to get mad! Here, three drinks as punishment. Drink them, and I'll forgive you!" It was Tyler. Then, over the phone, Helen laughed in a doting, gentle tone I had never heard from her before. "Okay, okay, I got it, my little jealous one." The moment she finished, her voice turned icy again. "Anything else? If not, stop bothering me!" I said coldly, "Helen, don't forget our deal. Either you come home right now, or I come get you. Otherwise, you can forget about ever getting that divorce." The other end went silent for a full thirty seconds before Helen spat out a vicious curse, "You're so damn pathetic!" Chapter 2 In the end, Helen gave in. By the time I drove to the bar, she was hanging out with a crowd of young rich kids. Every one of them was a notorious playboy in our circle. Before her memory loss, Helen almost never associated with people like them. To her, they were nothing but a pack of useless leeches living off their parents' money and wasting their lives. But after she lost her memory, she became one of them. Soon, someone noticed me. "Whoa, Helen, isn't that your husband?" The guy sneered, "What's this? The great Jordan Randolph, in a place like this? Scared your wife won't come home tonight, so you came to fetch her yourself?" Everyone in the booth burst out laughing. Only Tyler, sitting beside Helen, looked sullen. That made sense. He was the one seducing my wife. How could he laugh at a joke like that? He glared at me viciously, his eyes full of wariness and resentment. Helen sat in the middle of the booth. Faced with my arrival and everyone's jokes, she showed nothing but impatience. She took a small sip from her glass and parted her red lips. "What a buzzkill." My face stayed blank. Forcing myself to ignore her disgust, I said quietly, "Let's go. It's time to go home." At that, Tyler immediately put on a wounded look. He tugged at her arm and whined, "Babe, I'm not done having fun yet." Helen's face filled with tenderness, and she quickly pulled his head close, soothing him in a soft voice. The two of them nuzzled and whispered to each other, wrapped up in their own world as if no one else were there. Standing off to the side, I looked exactly like the villain trying to tear apart a pair of lovebirds. Even the carefree rich kids around us couldn't stand to watch. But they weren't about to stand up for me. They were planning to add fuel to the fire. "Jordan, we're having a great time here. Barging in like this isn't very nice, is it?" The guy picked up a bottle of liquor and looked at me with a teasing grin. "Of course, man, I get it. You want to protect your wife. Tell you what. Chug this bottle, and she's all yours." I frowned and was about to refuse, but Helen, off to the side, was only too happy to watch the drama unfold. "My family does business with his. I came here tonight to talk about a partnership. If he says no, I really can't leave." She pulled free of my hand and sat back down in the booth, watching me with interest to see how I would handle this. Things between the two of us were strained now, but the Watkins elders had always been good to me. I couldn't bring myself to do anything that would hurt their company. The guy was obviously trying to make things hard for me. But if I didn't drink, he could easily turn around and make trouble for the Watkins family in their partnership. I picked up the bottle. Just the smell of it made my stomach turn. I'd had stomach problems for years. I had even been hospitalized for it several times. Back then, Helen had rushed around every day, learning to cook all kinds of meals that were easy on the stomach. She was a pampered heiress, yet for the sake of my health, she had been willing to put on an apron and clumsily learn how to make those dishes. "If you don't behave and end up in the hospital with your stomach again, I'll go binge on junk food and ruin my health too!" Back then, she had glared at me as she said it, half sulking. It was as if my health were everything to her. The person from the past and the Helen in front of me overlapped, yet the two could never become one. Under the mocking stares of everyone, Helen included, I raised the bottle to my lips. "Fine. I'll drink it." Chapter 3 The liquor at the bar was cheap, harsh stuff. It was hard to get down, and it was extremely strong. I had barely gotten through part of the bottle when my forehead broke out in a cold sweat and my face slowly drained of color. The stabbing pain in my stomach made me dry heave again and again. Seeing this, the rich kids didn't dare push any further. After all, my status was no lower than theirs. Their ringleader quickly waved his hand. "That's enough, man. You're a real one. Stop drinking." Helen shot him a glare and pouted. "How boring." With that, she stood up. "That's it for tonight. I'm heading out. Brett, we'll pick up the partnership talk tomorrow." Tyler was still holding her hand, looking so wronged he might burst into tears at any second. Fighting back the nausea, I walked over, pulled Helen out of his grip, and strode out of the bar with her. But the moment we got home, Helen yanked her hand free and shoved me hard. My head was already spinning. Caught off guard, I landed flat on the floor. I couldn't hold back the churning in my stomach any longer and threw up all over the floor. The disgust in Helen's eyes deepened. "Jordan, you're so pathetic. You actually came all the way out to find me. Have you no shame?" As if that weren't enough to vent her anger, she grabbed the vase off the table and smashed it right against my forehead. Blood ran down from my forehead into the corner of my eye. I looked up, and in a daze, I thought I saw the Helen from all those years ago. By now, my stomach had started to burn as well. Even so, Helen just stood in front of me, watching coldly. In the end, she simply turned and went back to the bedroom. I barely managed to get up. I called a car to take me to the hospital and had the cut on my forehead bandaged. I didn't even go home. I fell into a deep sleep on the hospital bed. In my dream, I saw our past again. When we'd first gotten together, Helen loved watching those over-the-top romance dramas, the kind full of mistresses and amnesia plots. She always insisted on dragging me into watching them with her. And every time we finished one, she would look at me worriedly and ask, "What if one day you lose your memory too and forget me?" I smiled and stroked her hair, "Don't worry. Even if I forget everyone else, I'll never forget you." Helen happily burrowed her head into my arms. "Me too." But a dream is only a dream. And every dream ends. The next day, Tyler cornered me outside my office building. His eyes were full of jealousy. "You're so shameless!" "You knew she was married and still agreed to be with her. So who's the shameless one here?" I threw the mockery right back at him. Tyler didn't respond. The resentment and venom in his eyes were almost tangible. Then he scoffed. "Jordan, I know the Randolph family's business is going downhill. That's why you keep clinging to Helen. You just want to chain the Watkins family to your family's sinking ship. "But too bad. The one she loves now is me. In love, the one who isn't loved is the real other man, got it?!" I raised an eyebrow at him. "So you came here to rub it in my face?" Last night, I'd taken Helen away from him and ruined his fun, so today he'd come to ruin mine. I couldn't be bothered with his nonsense and turned to leave. Suddenly, he rushed up and grabbed my arm. I lifted my arm, and he went straight down onto the ground. I frowned. Was he really that much of a wimp? Before I could say anything, he suddenly looked wronged, without a trace of his earlier aggression. "Jordan, I know you hate me, but did you really have to call me out here just to humiliate me?" He clutched his wrist and gritted his teeth, his face stubborn. "I don't care what you do to me. But I'm begging you, please stop making things hard for Helen. She's free. She shouldn't be sacrificed for your families' business marriage!" He stood up and sighed, smiling bitterly as though giving in. "If it bothers you that much, I can leave your world and never show up again..." The quick click of high heels sounded behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know it was Helen. No wonder Tyler had suddenly put on this act. Those words weren't meant for me at all. They were meant for Helen. Helen hurried up to him. Tyler acted as if he had only just noticed her. He froze for a moment, then lowered his head, his voice trembling. "I'm sorry, Helen. I didn't mean to... I just wanted to apologize to Jordan. I didn't think he would..." Helen said a few comforting words to him, then glared at me viciously. "Jordan, you make me sick. Are you really that desperate to go after him?! Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have money!" She didn't give me the slightest chance to explain. She just unloaded all her anger on me. All of a sudden, I felt a deep exhaustion. Were all our years together really worth less than a boy she'd known for under a month? The more Helen said, the more worked up she got. She came at me, tugging at my clothes, insisting that I apologize to Tyler.