After He Cheated, I Forgot Who He Was

During my last outdoor activity in college, I unfortunately encountered a mudslide.

When I woke up in the hospital, I saw Julian Smith standing by my bedside in a suit, frowning at me.

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, Harmony Brown, standing beside him, spoke first.

Snow, you're finally awake. You scared us all.

I didn't respond. My gaze fell on their clasped hands.

Their hands, which had been tightly intertwined just moments ago, sprang apart the second my eyes touched them, as if electrocuted.

I let out a soft laugh:

"So you two started dating while I was unconscious?"

"Oh, and I told you we shouldn't climb that mountain. Good thing you both made it out okay."

"By the way, you two weren't so caught up in your romance that you forgot to submit my graduation thesis, right?"

Julian seemed unable to listen anymore. He lowered his voice and shouted at me:

"Snow Miller! You're thirty years old! What graduation thesis are you talking about!"

Hearing his words, my entire body went rigid.

Because in my memory, I was clearly only twenty-two years old this year.

The hospital room fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Only at this moment did I finally take a careful look at the two people standing by my bedside.

Julian was different from how I remembered him before I lost consciousness.

He looked more mature now, more like his father.

When he wore a suit, he no longer looked like a child wearing adult clothes.

And Harmony, standing quietly beside him, was no longer the scholarship student I remembered who always wore T-shirts and jeans.

My gaze fell on the Chanel brooch at her chest.

I remembered I once had a similar oneit was my eighteenth birthday gift from my mother.

The first time Harmony went on stage as a student representative, I had even asked if she wanted to wear my brooch.

Back then, she had lowered her head and smiled shyly, her dimples full of nervousness and uncertainty.

She had said: "Snow, this is too expensive."

"I can't wear a brooch that costs several years of my living expenses to give a speech."

But now, she wore a beautiful brooch, carried a bag worth tens of thousands, wore exquisite makeup, and her perfume smelled elegant and pleasant.

Harmony seemed to sense my gaze and opened her mouth, wanting to explain something.

But I still smiled and said, "Looks like our Harmony is living the life she wanted."

"Congratulations."

"Enough!"

Julian's roar interrupted my reminiscence. His handsome eyebrows were knitted tightly together. "Snow Miller, how long are you going to keep up this act! Don't think I'll fall for you just because you're playing crazy! I'm telling you, it's impossible!"

I looked at Julian in confusion. "Why would you fall for me?"

"Aren't you already with Harmony?"

Harmony finally found a chance to speak. Her eyes had somehow turned red. "Snow, listen to me."

"Julian and I aren't what you think. I... we didn't..."

But the doctor who pushed the door open interrupted her words.

"Miss Miller, do you feel any discomfort right now?"

I gently shook my head. My hair rubbed against the pillowcase, making a soft rustling sound.

"But... why do they keep saying I'm thirty years old?"

"Isn't it 2018?"

"Doctor, why would they play this kind of joke on a patient!"

The doctor's expression became grave.

In the end, Julian and Harmony were asked to leave the room.

After that, many doctors and nurses came and went.

Finally, as the sun crashed into the horizon, they reached a conclusion.

"Miss Miller, you've lost your memory."

"You've lost all memories from the cliff fall in 2018 to when you rolled down the stairs a month ago."

I watched their mouths opening and closing, but it was as if I couldn't hear any sound at all.

So...

I'm really thirty years old this year?

Although I had lost part of my memory, fortunately my bodily functions were fine.

After staying in the hospital for a few more days, I was discharged.

On the day of discharge, Julian picked me up.

I don't know why, but Julian had been very cold toward me lately.

Actually, I had never told Julian that before Harmony appeared in our lives, I thought the two of us were meant to be together.

Watching Julian throw my luggage into the trunk, then rather thoughtfully open the passenger door for me.

I raised my uninjured hand in a gesture of surrender. "Give me a break."

"I didn't mean to treat you like a driver."

"But it's not appropriate for me to sit in the passenger seat when you have a girlfriend."

Julian's face showed a flash of anger: "Snow Miller! Are you done yet!"

I didn't know what he was angry about again. I just maintained that ridiculous pose and stared at him for a while.

A moment later, I walked around him to find the back seat, fumbling to open the car door and climb in.

Julian said nothing more, only slammed the car door with a bang when he got in.

He even drove fast the whole way, as if he couldn't wait to send me straight to heaven with one press of the gas pedal.

The scenery outside the window had indeed become strange to me now.

This wasn't the city where we went to college anymore.

Our university was in the south, where you could see gentle scenes of small bridges and flowing water everywhere.

But herethis should be Julian's and my hometown.

Through the dense buildings, I saw the abandoned building that Julian and I used to use as our secret base when we were kids.

Only now it had been completed, standing cold and aloof in the center of the city.

Perhaps in its belly, it still held all the silly things Julian and I had said over the years.

We said we would go to college together.

We also said that when we grew up, we would raise a cat together.

And Julian had once said to me with a flushed face: "Snow Miller, wait for me to marry you when I grow up."

The car suddenly stopped.

The violent shaking of the car pulled me out of those tender, sepia-toned memories.

"Get out."

Julian opened the car door for me. His tall figure cast a pale gray shadow over me. "When we get inside, drop the act."

"Don't think I'm as easy to fool as those stupid doctors."

He suddenly reached out and gripped my chin hard. "If you scare Mia, you'll regret it."

In the sudden intense pain, I don't know why I felt my nose sting.

A round tear fell without warning onto the back of Julian's hand.

He withdrew his hand as if scalded by my tear.

I pressed my lower lip, feeling dizzy from the completely different Julian from my memories and this almost entirely new world.

I practically inched my way into that villa.

I don't know why, but the closer I got to this house, the tighter my chest felt, and even my tears couldn't stop streaming down.

By the time I stood in the entrance hall, my vision had been blurred into a chaotic kaleidoscope of light spots.

But I could still make out, among those blurred shapes, the little girl running toward me.

She had eyes too similar to Julian's.

I instinctively crouched down and reached out my hands to her, but she swatted them away and ran straight into Julian's arms.

"Daddy! Why did you bring her back again!"

I froze slightly, even stepping back awkwardly.

"Mia!" Harmony rushed out after her. "You can't talk like that!"

I forced an ugly smile at Harmony. "Harmony, it really isn't appropriate for me to live here."

"How about I rent a place myself."

"I won't disturb your family of three."

Julian let out a cold laugh.

"Snow Miller, get back to your own room."

"I want to see how long you can keep up this act."

"You like pretending to have amnesia, don't you?"

"Then stay here. When you remember who you are, then you can talk about moving out!"

With that, he led the little girl named Mia past me.

As he passed, he lowered his voice and said: "I hope by then, you'll still be willing to leave."

I was left alone in the empty living room.

When Harmony heard me say "won't disturb your family of three," she suddenly covered her face and ran off.

She seemed to be crying again.

Soon, I heard the voices of a man and child comforting Harmony from one of the inner rooms.

I was glad no one was paying attention to me, so I wandered around the house alone.

On the shelf in the living room sat photos of the three of them together.

It seemed to be taken at an amusement park, with huge, brilliant fireworks behind them.

Harmony leaned in Julian's arms, smiling tenderly.

And Mia, held by her hand, was looking up at them, with happiness practically solidified in the corners of her eyes and brows.

I also saw Harmony's trophy, matching mugs, and an essay Mia had written titled "My Mom."

Her still-childish handwriting carefully spelled out: "My mom's name is Harmony Brown. She's a beautiful and independent woman."

I read through it bit by bit, but the dull pain in my chest somehow grew more and more pronounced.

When I reached the last photo of Julian and Harmony together, I was in so much pain I couldn't straighten my back.

Just then, the door sounded. A woman carrying bags of vegetables came in.

Seeing my pale face, she quickly dropped the vegetables and rushed over to support me.

"Ma'am! You're out of the hospital!"

"Oh my, you're covered in sweat. Let me help you to the sofa."

My cold, sweaty palm rested weakly on her arm. "I'm fine."

"Could you please take me to my room?"

"I don't know which room I'm supposed to stay in."

Under the woman's surprised and uncertain gaze, I smiled weakly: "The doctor said I've lost my memory. There are a lot of things I can't remember now."

She supported me all the way to a room in the farthest corner.

When she pushed open the door, the smell of moisture and dust hit me in the face, making me cough twice.

The woman's expression looked somewhat embarrassed, as if she also thought this room was too shabby.

But in the end, she didn't explain anything. As she closed the door, she said softly: "Maybe forgetting is for the best."

I stumbled over to the small wooden bed and sat down. The wooden planks beneath me creaked under the weight.

Only at this moment did I belatedly recall that the woman had called me "ma'am."

But shouldn't the ma'am of this house be Harmony?

I was so confused by everything that had happened these past few days, but as I looked around the room, I spotted a pen abandoned in the corner of the desk.

That pen was my father's keepsake. I never went anywhere without it.

If it was here now, it meant I must have lived in this room regularly.

But why would I keep living in someone else's house?

Didn't I have my own home?

At this thought, I forced myself through the severe headache to move to the desk.

In the desk drawer, I found my diary.

And a ring.

And that ring was clearly the same model as the one Julian wore on his ring finger.

The next second, on the first page of the diary, I saw a divorce agreement neatly tucked inside.

Party A's name was Julian Smith.

And following Party B was my name.

I stared blankly at that divorce agreement.

The enormous shock hit me. At this moment, I seemed unable to even feel the bone-deep pain in my head.

I read through it word by word.

"One daughter born during marriage, Mia Smith, custody to go to Mr. Julian Smith."

"The two parties, due to irreparable breakdown of their relationship and inability to continue living together, are filing for divorce."

Below, Julian's name was already signed, but my side was still blank.

I frowned and opened my diary.

This diary had been written in for a long time. Only a thin half remained blank.

But in the filled portions, there were often water stains, blurring my handwriting into ugly ink blotches.

Clearly only half a book of content, yet it seemed to hold all the tears of the first half of my life.

I saw what I had written about the joy of being confessed to by Julian after that mudslide.

I wrote about the surprise of being proposed to.

I wrote about Harmony, as my bridesmaid at my wedding, crying uncontrollably.

Later, perhaps because discovering infidelity always follows the same pattern.

I wrote about Julian never coming home at night.

I wrote about the unfamiliar perfume smell on him, and about the photos of him with Harmony on her social media.

And just when I was first considering divorce, I discovered I was pregnant.

During those nights when my pregnancy symptoms were extremely severe, I held my father's pen, waiting night after night for Julian to come home.

Later, Mia was born.

I wrote about holding her as she slept, begging Julian not to leave, begging him to think about our childhood friendship.

Looking at those words with edges frayed by tears, I only felt it was absurd.

With only twenty-two years of memories, I didn't know why my future self would humble herself so much for a man.

And on the day I inexplicably rolled down the stairs, I had actually already decided to divorce Julian.

It was just that everything had been put on pause because of that accident.

The aroma of food drifted in through the crack in the door.

I closed the diary and looked at the dim yellow light bulb overhead. I gently pressed my chest.

"Good thing I'm back to being the fearless Snow Miller from her twenties."

I settled into living in this house.

On one hand, because after losing my memory, I really did need time to adapt to current society.

On the other hand, I felt there were still many places in this divorce agreement that could be adjusted.

Julian had cheated during our marriage. Leaving with nothing was what he deserved.

And I needed time to collect evidence.

I lived in this house like a silent shadow. Only Mrs. Davis, who came daily to cook, was willing to say more than a few words to me.

But she too was always careful not to mention Julian and Harmony.

After I moved in, my first major conflict with them occurred on the day I was supposed to go to the hospital to have my cast removed.

That day was also the parent open house at Mia's elementary school.

Mia, who had never shown me a kind face, knocked on my door for the first time the night before, twisting her clothes nervously.

"Take me to school tomorrow."

Her tone was stiff, nothing like the innocence and coquettishness she showed when talking to Julian and Harmony.

"No."

I looked down at the bank statements my lawyer had obtained for Julian's accounts, my tone flat.

"Don't you want Harmony to be your mom?"

"Let her take you."

But Mia suddenly burst into earth-shattering wails. "I don't want to!"

"They all say Harmony is a homewrecker!"

"They say I'm the daughter of a homewrecker!"

"Now no kids want to play with me anymore!"

"It's all your fault!"

Mia rushed into my room and slammed hard into my injured arm. "If you hadn't taken Harmony's place, I'd still have friends!"

I gasped from the sudden intense pain.

The next second, I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.

"Get out."