Chapter 3

I moved the email into an encrypted folder and took a cab to the marital home Natalie and I were supposed to share after our wedding.

Before leaving, I needed to collect my personal documentation and luggage.

When I entered the code, the lock beeped and stayed locked. I tried three times with the same result.

The property manager hurried over, looking embarrassed. "Ms. Natalie changed the locks yesterday. She changed the resident registration to Mr. Ryan's name, too."

My name was now on the list of people barred from the property instead.

I stood speechless in front of the door I had picked out myself, not sure what to say at all.

Natalie arrived half an hour later. She took one look at me. "Why did you follow us here?"

I stared at her. "Where are my things?"

She avoided my eyes. "I put them in the underground parking garage. Ryan recognizes this place, and living here will help him stay calm. Once he's fully recovered, I'll move everything back."

More than a dozen cheap-looking cardboard boxes were piled in the garage's trash area.

Books I had collected for years were damaged and swollen from the rain, and the picture frame Mom had given me when I reunited with the family had broken in two. In the photo, I stood among my family. My smile was hesitant but content.

Now, a crack separated me from the rest of them.

Natalie saw what I was looking at and frowned impatiently. "They're just a few books. I'll buy you new ones if they're damaged."

"And what about the money in our marriage account?" I asked, and her expression froze.

I opened my banking app in front of her. Of the 46,000 dollars we had saved together, only three-hundred and seventy dollars remained.

"Ryan wanted another custom suit," Natalie explained as she kept her voice down. "There's his ongoing treatment too, and the deposit on the hotel for the honeymoon. I'll pay you back once things settle down."

I stared at her. "You used my savings to buy him a suit and take him on a honeymoon?"

"I'm just playing along for now," Natalie said, her patience running out. "Leon, your brother nearly died saving your life. Why do you have to keep track of every tiny thing?"

My future home, my savings, and my fiancee had become the price of repaying him for saving my life. But… I was the only one expected to pay.

I said nothing more as I picked out the documents that hadn't been ruined by the water and pushed everything else, boxes and all, back into the trash area. The things I once could not part with no longer seemed so important.

Natalie grabbed my wrist. "What kind of tantrum are you throwing again now? I'm still going to marry you once Ryan's stable. He needs a fake wedding, and you want me. Is there a problem with that?"

I slowly pried her fingers away. "No. We won't have that problem again."

As I got into the cab, an alert from the smart home system appeared on my phone.

I had installed a camera in our marital home to keep an eye on the pets. Natalie had changed the locks but forgotten that the cloud account was still connected to my phone.

I opened the application.

Ryan was sitting on the sofa in my pajamas. He turned down the thermostat with ease, then took out the coffee I had hidden at the very back of a cabinet.

When his call connected, he sounded clearheaded and sure of himself.

"I remembered everything on the third day after I woke up. Who knew pretending to have amnesia would work this well? Leon's project is about to be mine, and the house and wedding are already mine."

I couldn't hear what the person on the other end said.

Ryan laughed so hard his shoulders were shaking. "It's not like they haven't noticed the holes in my story. They had just rather believed me than him."