Chapter 5

“You were right about Maya. I found something.”

Mr. Brooks pushed a manila envelope across the table. His expression was much more serious than the last time we had met.

I sat on the couch in his law office with my medical report resting on my knees. My six-month belly was impossible to hide now, and I had begun to get short of breath when I walked.

“Tell me.”

“Three years ago, in Harbor City, there was a man named Ryan Cole. He worked in international trade and came from a wealthy family. Two years after he married, he got into a car accident and developed traumatic amnesia. Then his ex-girlfriend appeared.”

“Maya.”

Mr. Brooks gave me a look.

“How did you know?”

“I guessed. What happened next?”

“His ex moved into his house and fought his wife over him. His wife was pregnant and driven into a corner. In the end, she died by suicide. She jumped from a building after falling into depression. After Ryan recovered his memory, he felt responsible and married his ex-girlfriend. They divorced six months later.”

“Why did they divorce?”

“Property disputes. Ryan said that after they married, he discovered his ex had been giving him some kind of ‘nutritional supplement.’ After taking it, his headaches worsened, and his memory kept going in and out. He suspected the pills were the problem, but he never had evidence. Nothing came of it.”

I placed the little brown bottle on the table.

Mr. Brooks stared at it for two seconds.

“Where did you get that?”

“It fell out of Maya’s pocket. Ethan is also taking the ‘supplements’ she prepares for him.”

Mr. Brooks unscrewed the cap and poured out a single off-white capsule.

“We need to send this for testing. If the ingredients match what Ryan described—”

“Then we can prove she did it deliberately.”

He closed the cap.

“Are you sure you want to take this step? If the tests confirm it, this will no longer be a simple family dispute.”

“I’m sure.”

The day the bottle was sent for testing, I tracked down Ryan’s contact information.

He now lived in a small subsidized apartment on the outskirts of the city. When he opened the door, I saw a man in his early thirties. He was so thin that his cheekbones protruded, and his eyes were sunken, as if something had hollowed him out over the past few years.

“You’re Nora?” He stepped aside. “The lawyer told me about your situation. Come in.”

The apartment was small, messy but not dirty. Several old medical records were spread across the coffee table.

“Your wife…”

“She was four months pregnant when she jumped.” Ryan sat down and stared at his fingers. “I only learned after my memory recovered that Maya had said a lot of things to her. She told my wife I didn’t remember her anymore. That I only loved Maya. My wife was gentle by nature. She carried everything alone for three months.”

I couldn’t say anything.

Because I hadn’t held on in my previous life either.

The only difference was that I hadn’t jumped from a building. I had bled to death on the floor of a storage room.

“What about the pills?”

“I suspected she was giving me something dangerous, but my memory really was damaged. I couldn’t tell if it was the aftereffects of the accident or the medication. By the time I figured things out and went to the police, we were already divorced, and the evidence was gone.”

He looked up at me.

“You have the bottle? Don’t lose it. I was ruined because I didn’t preserve the evidence.”

“I took pictures, and the medicine has already been sent for testing.”

Ryan’s eyelid twitched. He let out a long breath.

“Find out the truth for my wife too.”

After leaving Ryan’s apartment, I sat in my car for a long time.

Then I made another call.

It was to Jake, one of Ethan’s college friends.

In my previous life, Jake had come to visit Ethan. Maya wouldn’t let him into the bedroom, saying Ethan was resting. Later, Jake got into an argument with Ethan’s mother and said, “There’s something wrong with Maya. How can you all listen to everything she says?”

No one had believed him.

This time, someone would.

He answered after two rings.

“Nora? How did you get my number? I’ve been trying to contact you since Ethan’s accident—”

“Jake, do you believe there’s something wrong with Maya?”

There was a long silence.

Then he said, “I’ve been waiting a long time for you to say that.”