The Year He Loved Me Most

I received Liam Cole’s divorce papers when I was twenty-eight.
When I was eighteen, he’d proposed to me with a ring made from a chocolate wrapper.
Ten years. That’s all it took.
The day we were supposed to sign the papers, he got into a car accident. His memory reset to eighteen.
Back to the year he loved me most.

1

I was at LAX, waiting to board a flight to Paris, when the email with Liam Cole’s divorce petition arrived.
As I opened the file, a single thought surfaced, clean and sharp as glass: So, we’re finally here.
At that point, Liam and I had already been separated for two full years.
But his lawyer had been insistent. I had to return to New York to handle this in person.
I canceled my flight. The Parisian dream dissolved and was replaced by a cross-country flight back to the life I’d left behind.
On the plane, I twisted the wedding band on my finger. Ten years ago, he’d cried like a little boy when he asked me to marry him.
He would love me forever, he’d said.
And I, in all my eighteen-year-old innocence, had actually believed him.
But people change, don’t they?
I knew it was over two years ago. The last time he looked at me, I saw it in his eyes. The love was gone.
There was no point in dwelling on it. I closed my eyes and let the darkness swallow my thoughts.

It wasn't until I was standing on the curb at JFK, the familiar New York air thick with exhaust and urgency, that I understood what it meant to feel like a stranger in your own home. Two years isn’t a lifetime, but it’s long enough for everything to feel foreign.
“Nora! Over here!”
A familiar voice sliced through the chaos.
It was Sasha.
My best friend since we were teenagers.
She was the first person I’d told when I agreed to the divorce.
She looked incredible—a sharp beige suit, a slash of red lipstick, and huge, audacious gold hoops that framed her face. A portrait of effortless command.
“Nora, baby, give me a kiss!”
She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a fierce hug and planting a loud, smacking kiss on my cheek.
I couldn’t help but laugh, a little breathlessly.
As I turned to tease her, she cupped my face in her hands, gently but firmly turning my head away from the terminal.
“Don’t look, baby. Visual pollution.”
A small smile touched my lips, and I shook my head gently.
How could I not see him?
Liam Cole was everywhere. His face stared down from a dozen different ad campaigns, his eyes following me from billboards and digital screens.
Yes.
My husband.
The superstar.

2

“Hmph. You just wait, Nora. I’m going to be your divorce lawyer. That dog Liam Cole has been hiding this marriage for years while messing around with that—that Vance woman. Just based on the paparazzi photos alone, I can take him to the cleaners.”
Sasha was a partner at one of the top law firms in the city now. Watching her seethe on my behalf, I had the sudden, bittersweet thought that she had been Liam’s friend first.
Even if I was losing him, at least I still had her.
“My dear, powerful attorney,” I said softly. “Let’s not trouble you with this little thing.”
I just wanted it to be over. Quick and clean.
“You’re not planning on asking for nothing, are you?”
My silence was her answer.
“You… I’ve never met anyone so foolish. It’s just like when you were eighteen, giving up Paris for…”
Eighteen.
Such a distant past.
A past I never wanted to remember.
“Sasha, I don’t want to get dragged into a fight with him.”
“The last ten years with him have already taken everything I have.”
Sasha didn’t say another word. She just drove me to her apartment.
“Get some rest. I have to go back to the office to handle a few things.”
And then I was alone again in the sprawling, silent apartment. It was just like all those years in our house on the North Shore, where it was always, always just me.
I turned on the TV, and it was immediately there: a segment on an entertainment news channel.
“Big news from Hollywood! Is superstar actress Olivia Vance finally tying the knot? Rumors have swirled for years about her romance with Liam Cole, and now, with these new photos of the couple vacationing in Hawaii—allegedly scouting wedding venues—it looks like wedding bells are imminent. When questioned by reporters, Vance remained coy, but her radiant smile said it all. She’s currently preparing for the Cannes Film Festival, so we’ll have to wait for her return for official confirmation!”
Listening to it, I felt… nothing. A complete, hollow calm.
Two years ago, just seeing her name—Olivia Vance—on the screen would have made me want to scream, to hurl something at the television.
I was impressed with my own self-control now.
A text from an unknown number buzzed on my phone.
【Civil Affairs Bureau. 9 AM tomorrow.】
Efficient.
So this was why he was in such a hurry to divorce me. To marry her.
Perhaps I should thank her.
The next day, at nine in the morning, I was standing outside the Bureau as promised.
I waited for nearly two hours. No one came.
Steeling myself, I was just about to dial the number when my phone rang. It was Sasha.
“Nora, you need to get to Mount Sinai Hospital, now. Liam’s been in a car accident.”

3

“We’re… married?”
After two years apart, the first thing Liam Cole said to me was that.
Everyone in the hospital room turned to look at me. Some with suspicion, others with concern.
He glanced at the ring on my hand and then scratched his head, a look of pure, boyish confusion on his face.
What is going on?
I shot a questioning look at Sasha.
She pulled me into the hallway. “His memory has reverted to when he was eighteen.”
“He suffered a severe blow to the head,” she explained. “The doctors say he has memory loss. He only remembers things from before he was eighteen.”
“Eighteen?” I whispered the word.
Why? Why that year?
Because that was the year I gave up my spot at the Paris Opera Ballet School.
Because that was the year I broke with my parents for Liam.
Because that was the year that marked the beginning of my ten-year descent into hell.
I didn’t want to remember it.
I stormed back into the room.
“I’ve already divorced you!”
“I would never divorce her! My dream is to marry her!”
Our voices collided in the sterile air.
I froze. Liam froze.
Only his agent, standing in the corner, had a smug, ‘I told you so’ look on his face that made me want to slap him.
“You’re lying to me, aren’t you?” Liam’s voice was thin, incredulous. “There’s no amnesia. This is some kind of prank, right?”
“This isn’t funny. I have to get to practice.”
He tried to get out of bed, but his agent quickly stopped him.
“No one is lying to you, Liam.”
“You want proof? Here!”
I pulled our marriage certificate from my bag and threw it onto the bed in front of him. I enunciated every word, my voice trembling with rage.
“I don’t care if you have amnesia or not. Today was the day we were supposed to get divorced. And no matter what, I am divorcing you!”
Liam looked at the certificate I’d thrown down. At first, a small, disbelieving smile played on his lips. But as my words sank in, his face went completely white.
“Nora… you… I…”
“Yeah, that’s right, Liam,” his agent chimed in eagerly. “Weren’t you just in Hawaii with Ms. Vance a few days ago, looking at wedding venues?”
“Shut up!” Liam roared.
A sudden, inexplicable fire surged through me. I rushed forward and grabbed his arm.
“Let’s go. We’re going to the Bureau to get divorced, right now!”
He resisted, but I pulled him forcefully, ignoring how his face was growing paler by the second.
“My head… it hurts so much!”
He suddenly clutched his head, his face contorted in agony, and then he collapsed.
After the doctors finished their examination, they gathered us together and gave us a harsh lecture.
“The patient has severe depression and has just been in a major accident. And you’re agitating him like this? Are you trying to trigger a complete mental breakdown?”
Depression? Since when did Liam have depression?
“Don’t mention the divorce to him again. At least not while his memory is like this.”
“This is likely temporary amnesia. When his condition stabilizes, his memories should return. Until then, whatever you all are planning, please be patient and wait for the patient to recover.”
The doctor’s final gaze landed on me. “Especially you, Mrs. Cole. The patient needs you right now.”
The implication was clear.
But that meant I had to stay by his side.
I didn’t want to.
I looked at Liam, lying unconscious in the bed, and a profound sadness washed over me.
Why did you have to go back to being eighteen?
Eighteen… that was when you loved me most.

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