Chapter 3

After hanging up the phone, I headed home. It was only then that I was struck by the stark emptiness of the place.

There was nothing left but a hollow shell.

It was the house Ashton and I had made our own, where he once promised we would spend our lives together in that cozy little nest.

However, the coffee set we had lovingly designed, the knick-knacks we had chosen—all traces of him had vanished without a trace.

He must have been afraid I would cling to the memories, or maybe he did not want me to spiral out of control and ruin his upcoming wedding with Lydia. He had even turned the soil of the flowers we had nurtured together on the balcony.

Looking around the barren rooms, I could not help but smirk bitterly.

'Ashton, you've covered all your bases. Are you more afraid of my pain or the chaos of me remembering and wrecking your big day with Lydia? Would you have any regrets if you knew there was no turning back for me, no memories to reclaim?' I mused silently.

I slipped off my wedding ring, penned a final note to him, and sealed both our rings in an envelope, tucking it into the empty space of a flowerpot.

Just then, my phone rang with urgency.

It took a moment for my best friend, Noelle Mason, to find her words.

"Macie, I've got to tell you something. Ashton's cheating. I just caught him outside the hospital, all wrapped up with another woman."

I let out a nonchalant hum and replied, "It's fine. Let him do what he wants."

Noelle's voice cracked with surprise, "Macie, are you... Are you sure you're alright?"

Her concern was so genuine that it brought a laugh out of me.

"What could go wrong for me now? Ashton and I have already signed the divorce papers."

"Divorced?!"

I laid out the whole messy tale for Noelle, and when she heard about the pill I had taken, she let loose with a string of expletives.

"The nerve of him, scheming to marry that woman. He'd stoop to anything. You passed up the great opportunity at work to stand by him, poured your heart into his success—half of what he has is all thanks to you.

"Now, for some other woman, he's ready to sideline you, feeding you some cock-and-bull story about sparing you pain, slipping you a memory-wiping drug. What gives him the right? How can he even look at himself in the mirror?!"

A sharp pang shot through me, my face draining of color.

Five years back, when Ashton was down and out, I did not think twice before saying 'I do'.

I called in every favor to breathe life back into his business.

He used to cling to me every night, murmuring that I was his eternal love.

However, as time wore on, things started to shift.

Ashton's heart made room for someone else.

He brushed aside everything I had done, expecting me to be the perfect, understanding wife, even as he begged me to pardon his soft spot for Lydia.

Was it so hard to keep loving someone, just as before? Why was it that I could, and he could not?

Noelle was on the other end of the line, letting rip a storm of words, and after wearing herself out, she finally caught her breath and laid down her verdict.

"I bet my bottom dollar that he'll rue the day he divorced you and fed you those amnesia pills! Ha! He has no clue you haven't whipped up an antidote. Let him suffer the consequences, and you, you're finally free to move on."

My eyes flicked to the letter tucked away between the flowerpots.

After all the years with Ashton, I knew his routines inside out.

Ashton would often find solace in a lonely glass of liquor on the balcony when the blues hit him hard.

If he truly felt remorse on the day I walked away, that letter would surely catch his eye.

Deep into the night, Ashton came inside and turned the room upside down.

"What are you up to?"

He froze, catching sight of me in my pajamas at the bedroom door.