Chapter 4

"Can't you be reasonable?"

"Nora, I told you, we were purely business partners. It's totally normal for Chloe to visit me in her wedding dress. Why are you tormenting yourself over things that have nothing to do with you?"

The moment Chloe walked into that hospital room, I checked myself out against medical advice and went home to pack my things.

Christian tried to stop me again and again, his eyes filled with worry and heartache that looked terrifyingly genuine.

This time, he couldn't hold me back.

With my heart completely dead, his lies no longer mattered. Nothing about him mattered anymore. All I wanted was to leave, to get far away from him, to nurse my wounds in silence until I could finally find peace.

Otherwise, I was going to lose my mind.

I had loved him so deeply that enduring another second would truly drive me insane.

"I only lost my memory. My common sense is intact, and I can take care of myself."

Saying that, I grabbed a small wooden carving to pack into my bag, but my hand froze mid-air.

It was the very first gift Christian had ever made for me. He had blistered his hands whittling my favorite cartoon character, and it had been one of my most treasured possessions.

"What an ugly little figurine," I said flatly.

"Christian, the tag says this was a gift from you dated Chapter 2004. Did we know each other back then?"

A spark lit up Christian's eyes, the corners of his mouth curving upward as if he, too, was reminiscing about those sweet teenage days.

Yet his expression quickly turned ice-cold. "Our families were close, so yes, we met early on. I just picked up that wood carving somewhere. I saw you liked it, so I gave it to you. It's worthless."

"Oh," I replied softly, tossing it straight into the trash can. "Then it's just garbage. No point keeping it."

Christian stiffened, visibly fighting the urge to fish it out of the bin.

I picked up another keepsake and asked where it came from...

Over a dozen gifts—some expensive, some sentimental, tracing more than ten years of our shared history.

Every single one was stripped of its meaning by Christian's lies, labeled worthless, and discarded into the trash.

"I understand now," I said, looking straight into his eyes. "Christian, I'll remember this. So this is our past. I will never forget it."

He kept his head lowered, too cowardly to meet my eyes, so he never saw the two streaks of tears that slid down my cheeks before I wiped them dry.

I took nothing that belonged to him. The past and all the love tied to him were treated like trash, packed into the bin with those gifts.

I didn't even need a suitcase anymore. Clutching just my shoulder bag, I headed toward the door.

"Nora, even if there was no love between us, we were married for ten years. I'm responsible for you. If you just walk out like this and something happens, what am I supposed to do?"

He chased after me, grabbing my arm, his eyes rimmed with red.

I jerked my arm away, but my bag slipped from my fingers, spilling its contents across the floor.

Aside from my ID and credit cards, the only thing inside was a battered, worn journal.

From our teenage years into adulthood, every single page was filled with Christian's name.

He had calculated everything and bribed everyone to lie to me, but he had forgotten about my journal.

He lunged forward and picked it up before I could. With every page he flipped, his body trembled more violently.

Eventually, he couldn't bear to look any longer. A hoarse, strangled sound squeezed past his throat: "Nora, I... I can explain..."