All Chapters of He Gave Me Up, Now He’s Crying: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

"Charles, isn't this necklace beautiful? Sapphires, Vivian's favorite." At the counter, my mother turned the expensive necklace over in her hands, studying it from every angle.I was biting down on my own finger and couldn't feel it. Minutes earlier I had heard the whole scheme they had planned so long ago. Now there was nothing left in me but hatred and a despair with no bottom to it."Vivian's only your foster daughter, Marlene, but you treat her so well." Charles handed over his card and had the necklace packed into an elegant box.The care he gave that necklace said everything about how he felt for the woman it was meant for.I didn't go over. I backed away one step at a time and felt along the wall until I was out of the store. The moment fresh air hit me my legs gave out, and I sat down on a stone bench by the curb.I watched his car come up out of the parking garage. In the passenger seat sat a woman in sunglasses and a face mask. It was my mother.To keep me from recognizing he

Charles's hand froze in midair, and his eyelid twitched.He didn't quite dare turn and look at Vivian, because nobody knew better than he did how that necklace had ended up around her neck."So you gave her the real jewelry and handed me the throwaway freebie as a gift?"Before Charles could answer, Vivian's eyes reddened."Zoe, what jewelry, what freebie... I don't know anything about it..." And then she started to cry, as though she were the one who had been wronged.That got to Charles, and the look he gave me was all reproach. "Zoe, I bought the wrong bracelet. It has nothing to do with Vivian. Don't frighten her. Your mother probably gave her that necklace. There are plenty of necklaces like it, and you know how much your mother loved Vivian."Yes, I knew. My mother loved her. Charles loved her. Everyone loved her.I was the one nobody needed. "Really? My mother left me nothing before she died, and I'm her own daughter, but she gave it to her foster daughter?"Charles's face went

"Zoe, it's me. It's Charles!" He forced out another strained smile and reached for my face.I recoiled at once and watched him warily.But he kept coming closer, and a violent fear rose up in me."Help!" I screamed, leaped out of bed barefoot, and ran straight into Dr. Merrick.I hid behind her and clung to the hem of her coat. "Who is that man? Why is he here? Make him leave, make him leave!"Charles looked helplessly at Dr. Merrick, asking her without words.She sighed and shook her head with regret. "Charles, as you can see, Zoe has lost her memory.""What?" Charles had gone white. "What do you mean, lost her memory?"Dr. Merrick spread her hands. "She's had a severe shock. Her wolf is completely gone, and she can't feel the bond to her mate or to her family at all. Her mind is in chaos, and it has torn out the memories that were hurting her."She sighed again. "She doesn't know you. That means you are the memory that was hurting her. She chose to forget. It's the body protecting it

After that day, Charles shut himself in his room for a long time.When he came out, even the way he looked at me was humble and eager to please. "Zoe, what do you want to eat? Let me cook for you, okay? We could go to the mall. Anything you like, I'll buy it."He never brought up what he had done to me again. He never asked what I intended to do about it. He simply turned the page on the ugliest thing about himself and tried to make up for it by being good to me.I didn't object to any of it. I treated him as a live-in servant I didn't have to pay.When I ate the steak he cooked, he was thrilled, sure I had forgiven him. But I refused to respond to anything he said, and I never gave him another look. It broke him.One day, while he was working through a new recipe, someone knocked.Even with a closed door between us, my body moved without my mind's permission.When I opened it, a woman stood there whose clothes and overall appearance were unfamiliar to me. But I knew who she was: the m

The full truth about my mother's fake death came out too. She had been an Alpha's mate, yet she had done something monstrous to deceive her own daughter. The pack spat her out.Before Charles killed her, Vivian had already spread the story. The reason was simple. Marlene had appeared to come to her senses and had stopped taking Vivian in. Vivian had always been a rogue, and once she lost her protection, she went on a campaign of revenge.Now my mother had been driven out of the pack as well. A dead woman has no standing in any pack.So she came to me. At the sight of me, her legs buckled and she collapsed to the floor, her face a mess of tears and snot."Zoe! Forgive me! Vivian lied to me. She told me what she and Charles had was real love, and you were always so suspicious of everything, so I..." She wept and begged, more abject than I had ever seen her. "Zoe, please forgive me. You're the Alpha's heir. If you say yes, I can still live here. Otherwise, I honestly don't know where I'd