Forget Me, I Am Marrying Your Best Friend

The day before our wedding, my fiancé got into a car accident. When I rushed to the hospital, he was holding another woman in his arms. He looked at me with cold, indifferent eyes and asked, "Who are you?" After the doctor told me he had amnesia, I had no choice but to cancel the wedding. But on his birthday, I overheard a conversation between him and his best friend. "Julian, how long are you going to play this game before you actually marry Chloe?" Julian’s voice, both affectionate and cold, drifted out. "I’ll consider it after Elena’s birthday." But when I threw my real marriage certificate right in front of his face, he completely lost his mind. The VIP lounge door was slightly ajar, and the conversation leaking out made me freeze in my tracks. "Julian, aren't you afraid Chloe will find out the truth and dump you?" Julian’s voice sounded incredibly casual. "She won't. She chased me so desperately back then just to marry me." "Her parents are gone. I’m the only family she has left in this world." "When the time comes, I’ll just coax her a little, and she’ll stop being mad. Right now, Elena needs me more." The guy next to him started teasing. "Man, you really have her wrapped around your finger. But what if Elena changes her mind and says yes to you?" "Then what? Julian will obviously dump that idiot Chloe." Julian’s deep, cold voice rang out again. "When that time comes, I’ll explain things to Chloe properly." Hearing this, my heart sank. My hand slipped, and the gift box crashed to the floor with a loud clang. The lounge door was instantly pulled open. The guy who opened it looked panicked when he saw me. "Chloe... when did you get here?" "Just now." My voice was flat. The guy immediately let out a sigh of relief. I bent down, picked up the gift, and walked into the lounge. Elena, flushed and drunk, was leaning against Julian’s chest. She was his precious "first love," the one he had been pinning for all these years. A flash of guilt crossed Julian’s face, but he quickly regained his cold composure. "Chloe, what are you doing here?" "Didn't I tell you? I’ll consider the wedding after I get my memory back." Consider? So, I was just a disposable backup option to him. I walked over and placed the gift in front of him. "This is the thing you used to want the most." With that, I turned and ran out of the place as fast as I could. He didn't have amnesia. He just didn't want to marry me. He was still waiting for Elena to change her mind. ... After graduating from college, I became Julian’s personal assistant. This man, whose face used to hang on our university’s wall of fame, had been my idol for four years. When I learned from my coworkers that the woman he deeply loved had gone abroad, my heart, which secretly loved him, started fluttering again. Finally, after countless nights of taking drinks for him at business dinners and getting drunk, Julian drove me home. In the quiet, intimate space of the car, he turned to me and asked seriously, "Chloe, do you want to give us a try?" The year my parents died in a car accident, he took care of me meticulously. He held me close and whispered comfortingly, "Chloe, from now on, I am your only family." Since then, I followed him everywhere like an inseparable shadow. Until the day Elena came back to the country. The look in his eyes changed. My painful memories were cut short by my buzzing phone. "Chloe, Julian is wasted. Come pick him up and take him home." Thinking about how these people knew the truth but still helped Julian play me like a fool, I got pissed. I snapped into the phone, "Have one of your guys drive him back. I have plans tonight." Before he could answer, I hung up. After sitting alone in a bar for hours, I still ended up going back to the house we shared. The moment the front door opened, I saw Julian wrapped in a bath towel. And there was a woman lying on his bed. I didn't ask a single question. I just turned around to head to the guest room. Julian rushed over and grabbed my arm. "Elena is too drunk. I was afraid something would happen to her, so I brought her back." "Even though you're my girlfriend, Elena is my family." Family? It turned out he had so many "families" in this world.Maybe the cold wind got to me, but I woke up feeling extremely sick, so I took a sick day to stay home. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, the dining table was already piled with an elegant breakfast spread. Elena smiled and waved at me. "Chloe, Julian and I grew up together. We have a very deep bond." I kept my head down, chewing on my toast without answering. She kept rambling on. "Julian has amnesia now. He forgot some... unimportant things." Unimportant things. What a joke. I held back my anger and took a sip of the warm milk beside me. The scalding liquid instantly burned my throat, making me gasp in pain. Suddenly, Elena lunged forward, crashing right into the milk cup I had accidentally dropped. She let out a piercing shriek. The bedroom door flew open, and Julian rushed out. He grabbed Elena’s hands, checking them with pure panic on his face. The next second, he glared at me with eyes full of rage. "Chloe, did you do this on purpose? Do you have any idea how important next week’s piano recital is to Elena?" "I didn't know you could be this insanely jealous." The searing pain in my throat was so intense that I couldn't even find the voice to defend myself. Without waiting for my reaction, he scooped Elena up in his arms and rushed out of the house. It wasn't until nightfall that Julian returned. I was sitting in the living room, trying to swallow some warm soup. He walked over, snatched the bowl right out of my hands, and slammed it onto the floor. The ceramic bowl shattered into pieces, and he roared, "Chloe! Do you know that if the burn was any worse, Elena might never have been able to play the piano again?" "You almost ruined her life!" I had nothing to say. I just stared at the floor, mourning the only food I could actually swallow right now. Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my phone and quickly typed a message. [She bumped into the milk cup herself. I didn't do it on purpose.] Frustrated, I kept typing to explain myself. But Julian snatched my phone and threw it against the wall, shattering the screen. "Chloe, you've utterly disappointed me." The next second, he grabbed my arm, yanked me up, and dragged me toward the front door. "You hurt Elena, and now you're trying to escape responsibility?" "You are going to the hospital to apologize to her today, and you won't leave until she forgives you." I struggled hard, but he threw me into the passenger seat of his car. As the car sped toward the hospital, my heart turned completely cold. Inside the hospital room. Elena was lying in bed, looking pale, her hands wrapped in thick bandages. Julian dragged me inside. "Apologize!" I opened my mouth, but only a raspy, barely audible squeak came out. The young nurse standing nearby noticed something was off. She walked over to me and gasped. "Oh my god, miss, your throat is severely burned. You need to get this treated immediately, or it’ll get worse." A flicker of hesitation crossed Julian’s face, but his voice remained stern. "Stop playing victim to get out of this. Apologize to Elena first, then you can get your throat checked." The nurse looked at us anxiously, wanting to speak up, but I stopped her. I borrowed a pen and a notepad from the nurse and wrote down a single sentence. [Elena, I'm sorry. I'm giving Julian back to you.] Julian’s face darkened instantly. "Chloe, what the hell does this mean? What do you mean 'giving me back'?" His voice grew louder. "Didn't you say you were my girlfriend? Or have you been lying to me this whole time?" Even now, he was still pretending to have amnesia. But I was done playing the fool in his little drama. I bent down, gave them a deep, mocking bow, turned around, and practically ran out of the room. I didn't care about Julian’s furious shouts echoing behind me. Stepping out of the hospital, I felt as if a heavy burden was slowly slipping away from my soul. The night wind was freezing, and I wrapped my arms tightly around myself. The next second, a warm jacket was draped over my shoulders. I turned around and saw a familiar face. It was Noah. When did he get back from abroad?Noah was my childhood best friend. The very day Julian and I announced we were together, Noah left the country. Yet here he was, standing in front of me, looking down at me with a soft gaze. "What's wrong? Did Julian dump you?" I weakly punched his chest, my eyes welling up with tears as I nodded. After reading the whole story I typed on my phone, Noah clenched his fists and swore he was going to go inside and beat Julian to a pulp. I had to hold him back. But the next second, this proud man suddenly got down on one knee in front of me. "Chloe... do you want to give us a try?" The exact same words. Julian’s face flashed in my mind, and my nose stung as tears streamed down my face. Panicking, Noah quickly stood up, pulled me into his arms, and gently patted my back to soothe me. "Okay, okay, don't cry. I was just joking." "Actually, my mom has been nagging me like crazy to get married. I just wanted to find someone to get her off my back." I gently pushed him away and typed a single word on my phone: [Okay.] With Noah's help, I moved all my things out of Julian’s villa. During those days, probably because he was too busy catering to Elena, Julian didn't even bother to contact me. After all, he was supposed to have "amnesia." He couldn't risk breaking his cover too easily. Noah's parents rushed back from abroad. On the day of our engagement, I arrived at the hotel in my gorgeous evening gown, only to run straight into Julian at the entrance. He looked at me with sheer surprise, which quickly turned into annoyance. "Chloe, you know today is Elena’s birthday party. Why are you dressed like this?" The guys standing next to him immediately started snickering. "Chloe disappeared for so long, but look at her now. She came prepared. She's definitely here to propose to Julian!" A slight blush crept up Julian’s neck. But I simply pulled an envelope out of my bag and handed it to him. "Julian, this is my resignation letter. Thank you for mentoring me all these years." The crowd fell dead silent. Julian took the letter, his face filled with utter disbelief. Then, it turned into pure rage. "Chloe, are you seriously using your resignation to force me to marry you?" He threw the letter right back at me. "Before I get my memory back, you better stop throwing these ugly tantrums." Before he could finish, a pair of hands wrapped around his arm. "Julian, let's go inside. So many of our friends are waiting for us." Elena looked at me with a smug, triumphant smirk. "Chloe, why don't you join us? Even though I didn't invite you, you are Julian’s secretary, so I’d be happy to have you." She dragged out the word "secretary" with heavy sarcasm. I didn't bother to reply and turned to walk toward the other hall, but Julian grabbed my arm. "Chloe, what are you trying to pull? Today is Elena’s birthday. We can talk about whatever you want later." "If you dare ruin her special day, I will never forgive you." Feeling the pitying looks from the people around us, my cheeks burned. Maybe realizing he had been too harsh, Julian loosened his grip on my arm. "I know it's unfair to you that I've forgotten so many things right now..." I let out a cold laugh and violently shook off his hand. "Julian, my resignation is a notification, not a request for your approval." "As for our breakup, it was already finalized at the hospital." "Today, I’m here for my own wedding. I’m not here to watch your little show." Julian’s face turned incredibly dark, his voice dropping low. "Chloe, if you still want to marry me, stop making a scene." He turned to exchange a reassuring look with Elena. "After Elena’s birthday is over, I’ll give you an answer." Today, Elena was dressed in a lavish, white gown. Anyone who didn't know better would think this was their engagement party. I chuckled softly, reached into my purse, and pulled out a red folder. I opened it and held it up so everyone in the lobby could see it crystal clear. "Julian, look closely. I’m already married."