Forgetting Is the Ultimate Revenge

Mike Betts. The boy whose life I once shattered. He returned the favor, burning my world to the ground.
He drove my parents to their graves and left me with nothing, forcing me to claw through garbage and fight dogs for their leftovers. Everyone said hed finally gotten his revenge.
But the night I threw myself into the ocean, Mikewho couldn't swim a strokedove in after me. He lost an arm to a shark just to keep me alive.
Then he spent billions on a team of specialists, all to erase my past and make me his wife.
And it worked. Loving him became my entire world.
But on our tenth anniversary, I saw him slip into the live-in nurses room at midnight. I heard her breathless cries, her voice melting into the memory of the woman who had always been his one true love.
Through the wall, I heard Mikes ragged whisper, laced with tenderness. Im only doing this to make her pain sharper when she finally remembers. You know youve always been the real light in my life, Tessa.
I popped the amnesia pill Id been hiding in my palm.
Mike didn't know. I'd never forgotten a thing.
But from now on, I would forget everything.
Including him.

1
I waited for five hours before Mike came back to our room.
The damp air clinging to him was thick with the scent of Tessas floral body wash, a cloying, humid smell.
He practically jumped out of his skin when he saw I was still awake.
A coldness seeped into my bones, but I forced a smile. Why the big reaction? Did you do something you shouldn't have?
His expression flickered through a series of emotions, his eyes darting away, unable to meet mine.
A client was being difficult. We drank too much. I just took a quick shower in the guest lounge.
The excuse was so clumsy it was almost funny. His reputation as The Reaper in the corporate world wasn't for show. What fool would dare force him into a late-night drinking session?
I didnt bother calling his bluff. Instead, I slowly pushed up the silk sleeve of my robe.
A hideous, angry burn covered a large patch of my forearm.
Tessa did this, I said, my voice flat. I want her gone.
Mikes gaze fell on the wound. His brow furrowed for a second, then smoothed out. Its just a small burn. Ill have the doctor look at it tomorrow.
Shes just a kid, fresh out of school, a bit clumsy, he said, unbuttoning his shirt. You need to be more understanding. Ill have her apologize, and Ill make sure she covers the medical bills.
I almost laughed.
Years ago, his own mother had called me a vixen, and hed banished her back to their provincial hometown on the spot, not even letting her pack a suitcase. For all the years of our marriage, hed replaced the entire household staff if I so much as shed a few more hairs than usual.
Hed once told me, his voice raw with emotion, Evelyn, you have no one but me now. I won't let anyone, or anything, hurt you.
But now, this piece of ravaged flesh on my wrist was, in his words, just a small burn.
Playing the part of the dutiful wife, I pulled my sleeve back down, hiding the ugly mark.
I know. I wont hold it against a kid.
A kid who was the same age as me.
I pressed my fingers to my temples and drew in a sharp breath.
My head hurts.
A side effect of the memory-wiping drugs. This time, though, the pain was real.
Hurting again? His voice was heavy with fatigue. Its been years, you should be over this by now. Evelyn, stop using your old ailments as an excuse. Youre running the staff ragged.
He paused, his tone growing colder. And dont wear me out, either. I have an international conference call early tomorrow. Im exhausted.
A dead silence fell over the room.
The stabbing pain migrated from my head to my heart.
Okay, I whispered.
My fingers brushed against the cool metal on my left hand. Without any pressure, the wedding band Id worn for years simply slid off.
It felt like a thousand needles were piercing my brain all at once, the pain so intense that my vision swam with black spots. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, willing the tears not to fall.
The memory of Mike, his eyes red-rimmed as he placed this ring on my finger, shattered frame by frame, flaking away until it was nothing but a blur.
The next morning at breakfast, Mike couldnt find me. He tore through the mansion in a panic, even calling in a private security team to search the grounds.
They finally found me in the wine cellar.
Coiled beside me was a highly venomous viper.
The snakes head lunged forward.
Dont move!
Without a second thought, Mike threw himself over me, shielding me with his body.
The fangs sank into his neck. His face turned a ghastly shade of blue-black almost instantly.
He was rushed into the ER. For twenty-four hours, they pumped him full of new blood, barely pulling him back from the brink.
The doctor, his face grim, tore into Mikes assistant. Why were you ten minutes late? He was this close to dying!
Every pair of eyes in the room turned on me like daggers.
It was my fault. On the way to the hospital, Id insisted we go back for my teddy bear, wasting precious time.
Mikes assistant of ten years finally snapped, his voice shaking with rage. A stupid bear is more important than Mr. Betts's life? After everything hes done for you, you don't even care if he lives or dies!
Mikes expression hardened instantly.
Youre fired. See HR on your way out.
Silence returned to the room.
Only then did he turn to me, forcing a reassuring smile onto his pale face. Dont listen to him. If it makes you happy, Id give you my life, not just some teddy bear. I wouldnt even blink.
I hugged the faded, well-worn bear and gave him a goofy smile.
It was strange. Mike wasnt on any medication, so why was his memory so bad?
This wasnt just some teddy bear.
It was the one hed given me back in high school. It had cost five hundred dollars. A sum that had taken him five months of scrubbing toilets to save up.
For me, back then, that wasn't even enough to cover the cost of the gift wrap.
So, in front of the entire class, Id thrown the bear in the trash. Then Id pulled out ten thousand dollars in cash and thrown it in his face.
Here. Go get a taste of the real world, and stop trying to disgust me with your trash.
My gaze drifted to his remaining hand. Years of a pampered life had made it smooth and soft. A far cry from the hands of that boy, raw and peeling from corrosive cleaning agents, swollen with chilblains.
Mikes hands were never meant to look like that. Even the woman I was now could see that.
The door to the hospital room banged open. Tessa burst in, throwing herself at Mikes bedside, wailing. The force of her entry sent me stumbling to the floor. The burn on my arm, which shed inflicted days earlier, split open. Blood soaked through my sleeve.
Mikes eyes, filled with concern, were only for Tessa.
It wasn't until a nurse came in for rounds that he seemed to remember I was even in the room.
He looked at me, a flicker of awkwardness in his eyes. Tessas just overly empathetic. Dont read too much into it.
Then, as if suddenly remembering my headache, he told the doctor to take me for a scan.
But through it all, he never once looked directly at me.
He never saw the crimson stain spreading across my sleeve.
The doctor stepped away to grab something, leaving me alone in the hallway. Suddenly, a violent force yanked me backward. Tessa had me on the ground, snatching the teddy bear from my arms and shoving it hard against my face. Her voice was a venomous hiss.
You bitch! Now youll know what it feels like to suffocate!
Panic seized me. Cotton filled my nose and mouth, and the world dissolved into a frantic, suffocating blackness. I struggled, my subconscious screaming Mike's name. My nails scraped bloody trails on the linoleum floor.
The hospital room was just a few feet away, but no one came.
Just as I was about to lose consciousness, I heard Mikes voice, calm and distant.
I thought I was saved.
But he just watched, his expression unreadable. Then he turned to the doctor who had followed him out.
Dr. Lee, if you would. Process this memory for Evelyn. Just like all the other times.
Tessas shrill voice exploded in my head. You wouldve learned your lesson by now if Mike didnt wipe your memory every single time!
So this wasnt the first time. It wasnt the first time Mike had let Tessa hurt me.
A torrent of shattered memories crashed into me, each one a shard of glass in my mind. On our wedding day, Tessa moved into our marital home. Time and again, under the guise of getting revenge for Mike, shed thrown scalding coffee on me, pushed me down the stairs. Shed even pinned him to the sofa right in front of me.
Hed struggled, pushed her away.
Until that one night, when he finally gave in.
Hed stood there, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his eyes bloodshot as they met mine. His voice was a raw rasp.
Evelyn, theres too much baggage between us.
He was right.
The humiliation of our youth, the ruin of my family, the arm hed lost for me. It was a sea of blood and vengeance that we could never cross.
I was dragged onto the treatment chair, electrodes clinging to my scalp.
Mike walked over, his face a mask of complicated emotions. Seeing the tear tracks on my cheeks, he leaned down and kissed me.
Sleep now, Evelyn. When you wake up, everything will be new again.
As he reached for the switch, the doctors hesitant voice cut through the air. Mr. Betts, the memory wipes have become too frequent. It could cause permanent damage to Mrs. Bettss brain.
Mike paused, his voice laced with a strange helplessness. But I cant let her hate me.
Zzzt.
A raw jolt of electricity tore through my brain, scrambling the ugly, painful past into meaningless static.
My fingers went limp. The teddy bear Id been clutching so tightly rolled off the bed and into the trash can beside it.
Just like that day in high school.
Only this time, no one was coming to fish it out.
I slept for a long, long time. When I opened my eyes, I saw a handsome, vaguely familiar face looking down at me.
I frowned, yanking my hand from his tight grip.
Who are you?
The mans body went rigid, and a wave of pure panic flooded his eyes.
Evelyn, its me, Mike. Your husband. He grabbed my hand again, his grip so tight it felt like he might shatter the bones. Weve been married for three years. You love me, remember? You told me I was your entire life.
When I didnt respond, he started rambling, repeating how much I loved him over and over.
I rubbed my throbbing temples.
I seemed to remember the facts he was stating, but the feelingthe lovewas gone, as if it had been surgically carved out of me.
I found myself soothing him out of habit. Im sorry, my head is killing me.
Mikes expression froze, looking deeply unnatural. He glanced away, his eyes landing on the teddy bear in the trash can. A deep frown creased his forehead, and he immediately called for a nurse.
What is this piece of junk? Get it out of here, now!
I watched the bear, its fur stained with dried, dark red blood, and subconsciously touched a small cut on my own lip.
Mikes body tensed. Did you have a nightmare? he blurted out, then quickly added, Dreams arent real, Evelyn. Dont believe any of it.
His attempt to cover his tracks was clumsy and laughable, but I couldnt even summon the energy to question it.
I just watched them take the bear away.
A ruined old bear, I said calmly. It was time to throw it out.
Just like our love.
Mike must have sensed something was wrong. Though doctors had ordered him on strict bed rest, he started clinging to me, staying by my side nearly twenty-four hours a day.
Except, of course, at night.
I always woke up when he slipped out of bed to go to Tessa. Sometimes, they would even come back to our bedroom, making love by the side of the bed where I lay.
Mike, when are you going to let Evelyn get her memories back? Tessas voice, choked with tears, was startlingly clear in the spaces between their passion. Youve sacrificed ten years of marriage for your revenge, and Ive waited ten years for you. Its enough. Its really enough.
Soon, Mike would always say.
Lost in his own world, he never saw the venomous hatred in Tessas eyes when she looked at me.
She started secretly taking my medication.
She didnt know that Mike, terrified I might discover their affair, was already adding even more drugs to my meals every day.
My memory began to fray, huge blank patches appearing in my days. Id often sit by the window for hours, staring at nothing.
Mike seemed pleased with this. He saw it as me being less clingy and seemed relieved. How ironic. After all the effort hed put into turning me into a broken woman whose world revolved only around him, he was now tired of the burden.
I said nothing. I just went on with the slow, quiet process of unloving him.
Until the night it all exploded. During dinner, the front doors of the mansion were thrown open.
Tessa, her hair a mess, burst in and dropped to her knees in front of me.
My mother has a heart condition! Come after me if you want, but leave my family out of this! she shrieked, her voice thick with sobs, as if Id committed some unforgivable crime.
Outside, a sea of flashing lights pulsed against the windows. Reporters had surrounded the house.
Mr. Betts, do you have any comment on your wifes online post, in which she accuses you and Ms. Vance of having an affair?
Mr. Betts, was your decade-long devotion all a lie?
For ten years, the story of Mike Bettss undying love for me was the fairy tale of our social circle. Now, the fairy tale was shattered, and with a third party involved, all the blame was aimed squarely at Tessa. The reporters microphones were practically in her face, their questions sharp and cruel.
Mikes face darkened, his eyes a brewing storm as he looked at me. But in the end, he didnt touch me. He just pulled Tessa to her feet and told her he would handle it.
He turned away, calling his assistant, telling them to arrange for Tessa and her entire family to be sent abroad.
Tessas eyes went cold. She furiously tapped on her phone.
Less than a minute later, Mikes phone rang.
Tessas parents, distraught from the news, had been in a fatal car accident.
Tessa crawled toward me, her hands clawing at the leg of my pants. I was wrong, I was so wrong she howled, her words a jumbled mess, yet she skillfully directed all the blame onto me. You warned me in high school not to take what was yours I should have learned my lesson when I got expelled Now my parents are dead Ive ruined my family
Mikes eyes turned blood-red. He grabbed my wrist, his grip so fierce I thought the bones would snap.
How could you be so vicious?!
Tessa wailed, banging her head on the floor before me. Im begging you, leave my family alone! I dont want anything anymore

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