Chapter 2

The next second, he grabbed Joy's hand tightly and gritted his teeth.

"I'm taking you away."

"If this house can't tolerate your presence, then I'll leave with you!"

Joy's tears flowed like a broken dam.

She turned to face me, bowing repeatedly in apology, her voice dripping with mock sincerity.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. I really didn't mean to take him from you. It's just... I love him too much."

She stepped forward to grab my hand, and I instinctively flinched away.

But as soon as I pulled back, Joy gasped and fell backward, as if she had been violently shoved.

"Joy!"

Tyler leaped forward, catching her in his arms just in time.

He whipped his head around to glare at me, his eyes ice-cold.

"Chloe, how dare you push her?!"

"If Joy hadn't felt sorry for you being a 'widow' and begged me to help ease your loneliness, I wouldn't have even deigned to look at you!"

The pain radiated from my chest to my limbs. I stumbled backward, my lower back crashing hard into the edge of the console table.

A barely healed wound on my waist ripped open, and I felt the warm stickiness of blood soaking through my shirt.

Fighting the dizziness, I forced out a whisper.

"I didn't push her. She did it herself..."

"Enough!"

Tyler cut me off mercilessly.

"I am sick and tired of your lies!"

"Someone get in here! Throw Chloe into the basement. Let her stay there until she reflects on what she's done!"

The moment he spoke, several burly men in black suits stepped forward and grabbed my arms roughly.

I was dragged across the floor and thrown into the damp, dark basement.

Joy snuggled closer into Tyler's chest, pretending to be worried.

"Honey, Chloe didn't mean it."

"I just took a little fall. It's my fault anyway. I'll take the blame, please don't punish her..."

Tyler tightened his grip around her, looking down at me with absolute disgust. "She brought this on herself!"

"A vicious woman like her deserves to be abandoned!"

With that, he wrapped his arms around Joy's waist and planted a soft kiss on her nose.

"You're just too soft-hearted. That's why people walk all over you."

Cradled in his arms, Joy shot me a smug, triumphant look over his shoulder.

Then, the heavy basement door slammed shut.

I curled into a ball on the cold floor, shaking uncontrollably.

I was terrified of the dark. Tyler knew that.

Back when he loved me, he would walk miles in the dead of night just to walk me home.

Now that he didn't, he was the one who pushed me into the abyss.

His amnesia was a lie. His change of heart was the only truth.

If this was what he wanted, then I was done.

I don't know how many hours passed before the basement door was finally pushed open.

Tyler's parents stood at the entrance, their faces pale with shock.

"Chloe, you... you were down here all night?"

My throat tightened, and tears threatened to spill.

Alisa rushed down the stairs, pulling me up from the floor with trembling hands, her face full of heartbreak.

"My poor child, you've suffered so much. I promise we will teach that foolish boy a lesson!"

I closed my eyes slowly.

Accepting my fate, I finally uttered the words I had kept locked in my heart.

"I'm divorcing him."

Mike, Tyler's father, gasped.

"Chloe, don't make a rash decision!"

"Tyler loves you so much. He just needs some time to recover his memory."

In just a few days, Mike seemed to have aged a decade. There were dark circles under his eyes, and new streaks of white in his hair.

Alisa, supported by her husband, stepped closer to me, tears still wet on her cheeks.

She took my hand in hers, her voice trembling.

"No... don't force Chloe. My dear child, you should go."

"You're still so young. It's not worth wasting your life waiting for an uncertain future."

"Who knows when Tyler will get his memory back? Right now, he's convinced he's his brother..."

Alisa broke down, unable to finish her sentence.

Seeing how much pain they were in, my heart ached.

In the end, I didn't have the heart to tell them the ugly truth about their son.