After He Lost His Memory, He Loved Me Chapter 08
I brought him upstairs.
He was shivering, his face pale.
My mom looked at him with something like pity.
I pushed Leo toward the bathroom.
“Shower first.”
He came out fast.
My dad isn’t tall, so the pajamas were tight on Leo.
A little ridiculous.
He sat quietly at the table.
My mom and dad exchanged a look and dragged each other into their room.
Before he could say anything, I held up my hand.
“We’re not right for each other, Leo.”
“I’ll admit it. In the beginning, I married you because I liked you. I thought maybe, just maybe, I could be your wife and live happily ever after.”
“But life proved me wrong.”
His eyes went red.
“You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t—I never—”
“She got a bunch of investors together that night for a networking thing. Those guys could drink.
I blacked out…”
“No. I didn’t want a divorce because of that.”
Even when I saw him passed out with Chloe lying next to him, I believed Leo—the guy who slept in the guest room for three months—was too decent to do something that would humiliate both families.
The photo didn’t make me lose my mind.
What happened after did.
“Love is two people. Marriage isn’t. Your feelings for me can’t cancel out everyone else’s dislike.”
“The fact that I married you made both families look bad. My family gets made fun of for trying to marry above our station. Your family gets made fun of for having a broke daughter-in-law who can’t even afford one limited-edition Birkin.”
Before I finished, Leo started crying.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for my pride and my prejudice and every way I hurt you. I didn’t know they treated you like that…”
He used to see me all sad and ask why.
I never told him.
I just cried alone in the dark, night after night.
Chloe was just the last straw.
Think about it from their perspective.
I’m worth a fraction of what Leo’s sister is.
Forcing my way into the Hall family was probably hurtful to them too.
I know what Leo means.
He wants me to just be with him and ignore what anyone else says or does.
But it’s not that easy.
Before we actually grow up, we think we’re fighting against our parents’ authority and the tyranny of public opinion.
But really, we’re fighting against the whole world.
“I don’t leave me, Bella. Please.”
I couldn’t believe it.
The man who stood on a flower planter and sneered at me six months ago was now begging me with red-rimmed eyes.
“We were so good together. Didn’t you like it?”
“I just lost my memory.”
“You didn’t lose your memory!”
He cracked.
His voice got loud.
“You just went back to the time when you loved me most! Those three months were the happiest of my life. How can you forget?”
I smiled bitterly.
“You’ve got a long life ahead of you. Today it’s Chloe. Tomorrow it’ll be Tina. They’re all better for you than me. Your parents, your sister—they’re your real family.”
“And your so-called happiest time? It was just a momentary obsession.”
He dropped his head and grabbed my hand on the table.
His voice shook.
“I’ve never liked anyone this much. When you asked for a divorce, I felt like I was dead. Bella. I can’t lose you.”
After a long silence, Leo seemed to make up his mind.
“I’m not getting divorced. If you won’t come home, I’ll come to you.”
I blinked.
Come to me?
Like… come to me?
Leo stood up suddenly and wrapped his arms around me.
“Ever since you left, there’s been two of me…”
He looked down.
His eyelids were red.
“The me who lost you.”
“And the me who’s holding you again.”
Leo ended up staying.
He squeezed into my tiny childhood home with me.
To win over my parents, he left work early every day, squeezed himself into the kitchen, and cooked two solid weeks of burnt vegetables and half-raw rice.
The whole family looked like death.
My dad’s stomach got worse.
My mom pulled the plug.
“Leo, honey. Maybe you should stop cooking.”
“Why?”
My mom didn’t want to crush his spirit.
She just mumbled, “Well, your dad and I have a combined pension of over fifteen hundred dollars. We can just eat out…”
I knew what she was doing.
She was trying to shut him up while flexing their retirement income.
Leo immediately went into performance mode.
“That’s not enough!”
“Tell you what, Mom.
What if I wire you a few thousand every month?”
My mom was so mad she nearly died.
She walked off in a huff.
Leo looked at me nervously.
“Did I say something wrong?”
I said nothing.