He was starting to feel like a stranger.
“Lily grabbed my hand and stabbed herself.
You can check the security footage.” That
was the only thing I could remember clearly.
I didn’t want to lose my memories, but I
couldn’t lose my innocence.
Ethan told me the truth.
His mother had known all along, but she’d
kept quiet because Lily’s family was
influential. She didn’t want to ruin their
reputation.
That’s why she looked so guilty and
sympathetic that day.
Later, when she learned that Ethan was going
to marry Lily, she told him everything.
“What about my reputation?”
“I spent three years in prison for something I
didn’t do. Who’s going to make up for that?”
I clenched my fists, my chest heaving.
Rage burned in my heart, out of control.
I couldn’t breathe. My throat felt like it was
<
closing.
The monitors started beeping.
“Don’t get upset. Just breathe,” Ethan said
anxiously, calling for a doctor.
Sam gave me a sedative, and I calmed down.
“I’m going to make her pay for this!”
I laughed. “You’re the one who sent me to
prison!”
His face paled.
The air went still.
My memory was getting worse. I couldn’t
even remember the man in front of me.
He always had a little notebook, and he’d
read from it.
“May 3, 2015, sunny. Ethan likes bamboo
shoots but hates cilantro.”
“August 8, 2015, cloudy. I think he likes
someone else. I need to try harder. I hope he’ll
like me.”
“March 8, 2016, cloudy. He doesn’t seem to
hate me anymore. Keep trying.”
“June 1, 2019, sunny. We graduated. He’s
starting his own business. I secretly printed a
bunch of flyers for his company and handed
them out at the subway station for a month.
Some people actually went to his company.
I’m so happy.”
“December 23, 2019, rainy. He’s working too
hard. He drank too much with clients and now
his kidneys are failing. What am I going to
do? There aren’t any donors available. I
secretly went to the hospital and had Sam
check my blood type. God thinks we’re a
couple. I secretly donated a kidney. He’s
finally getting better.”
“July 2, 2022, rainy. Lily is leaving the
country. He’s sad. He saw me, and he seemed
to make up his mind. He said he wants to
marry me. I know he’s doing it out of spite,
but I’m still so happy.”
“July 6, 2022, sunny. The wedding was
rushed. The ring he gave me is a little small,
but I love it. This is the happiest day of my
life. I’m finally Mrs. Cole.”
As I listened, I felt sad. “That woman is an
idiot,” I mumbled. “The man doesn’t love her, and she keeps giving and giving.”
The man touched my hair, his eyes wet. “She
is an idiot. So stupid she doesn’t even care about her own body.”
I said, “If it were me, I wouldn’t do that. I want
to find a man who loves me.”
I was awake for less and less time. Most of
the time, I was asleep.
The handsome man was always sad.
The way he looked at me was heartbreaking.
In just a month, his hair had turned gray.
The scar on my left side was so itchy. I
wanted to tear it off.
The man went to the bathroom. I got out of
bed, grabbed a fruit knife, and started cutting
my stomach.
Blood poured out. It hurt like hell, but it
wasn’t itchy anymore.
“What are you doing?”
The handsome man grabbed the knife,
frantically trying to stop the bleeding.
“Does it hurt?”
The cut was too deep. He couldn’t stop the
blood.
They moved me to a special room. There was nothing in it that I could use to hurt myself. The windows were all covered with bars.
They were talking about something, about a big surgery.
The handsome man left for a while. When he came back, he looked exhausted, with stubble on his chin. He wasn’t as handsome as before.
He stroked my face over and over, sadly.
He said, “Everything you gave me, I’m giving it back to you.”
They wheeled me to a cold table. The man
was with me. He kept looking at me.
The doctors injected us with a white liquid. I
passed out.
When I woke up, it felt like a long time had
passed.
My left side was throbbing.
There was a white bandage around my waist.
“You’re awake!” Sam said, walking over.
I hadn’t had electroshock therapy in a while,
so some of my memories were coming back.
He checked my scar. “Looks good. The
transplant was successful.”
What? Transplant?
“Who gave me a kidney?” I asked, surprised.
