The Amnesia Clause

The TMZ headline blew up my phone: [MEGASTAR FINN WILDERS STOLEN ID USED IN SHAM MARRIAGE].

Thats how I found out Finn Wilder had forgotten we got married three years ago.

The entire internet started digging. They found me, a single mom, and our son, Leo.

Finn Wilder himself tagged me in a public statement: [@AnnaHayes I get that fans are passionate, but this is next level. Can we get this annulled, like, yesterday?]

I replied: [Okay.]

But we scheduled the divorce three times, and Finn never showed.

The first time, his assistant called. "Mr. Wilder was held up on set. Pyrotechnics issue. We'll have to reschedule."

The second time, his publicist texted me. "Mr. Wilder was rushed to the hospital with a high fever. We're rescheduling."

The third time, my son Leo brought me his iPad, pointing at a news alert. "Mommy, Daddy got a booboo. He hit his head in a car."

Before Finn Wilder was Finn Wilder, we dated.

We were young, stupid, and in love. He dragged me to a 24-hour chapel in Las Vegas. His eyes were brighter than the neon strip. "This way, you're stuck with me," hed said, his hands framing my face. "Not even God can tear us apart now."

Hed kissed me, smug, like he'd just conquered the world. "You're mine. Next life, too."

That same day, he got in a car accident. And he forgot me.

His family, who always hated me, saw their chance. They erased every trace of me from his life.

So when the [SHAM MARRIAGE] headline dropped, I wasn't surprised. It had his family's fingerprints all over it.

Since he'd forgotten, his family could write whatever history they wanted. I was recast as a delusional, psycho fan whod "found" his lost wallet and somehow, magically, married him.

It was a clean, believable narrative.

I stared at the blurry screenshot of the marriage certificate on the gossip blogs. The ID number was magnified.

The internet did its work.

Within hours, my crappy apartment building, my name, and grainy photos of me struggling with a stroller were plastered all over Twitter.

Id found out I was pregnant right after he lost his memory.

Leo is two and a half. He looks just like me.

No one, not even Finn, suspected he was the father.

The whole world was waiting for me to break down, to start screaming, to fight for him.

My DMs were a dumpster fire of 99+ messages. They called me a psycho. They called me a gold-digging whore. They said I was trash trying to cling to a god.

Ive watched his movies. I watched the reckless, beautiful boy I knew turn into "The Finn Wilder," an untouchable megastar.

I know how this business works. A secret wife and a toddler don't help that brand. Id waited three years for him to remember.

I gave up hope a long time ago.

I stared at his public post for five minutes, then typed: [Okay.]

My heart had died three years ago. It was time to bury it.

I actually met his older brother, Julian, first.

I was the "swapped at birth" clich. The true heiress to the Landry fortune, raised in a trailer park, and "rescued" at seventeen. I was a country bumpkin who only knew how to get good grades. I didn't fit in with the prep school kids.

To make it worse, I was part of an old "family arrangement" to marry Julian Wilder.

Everyone laughed at me. But Julian pulled me aside at one of those awful garden parties.

"This arrangement," he said, "I intend to honor it. Get your grades up. You'll come to New York with me."

I didn't have a single friend. His words were a lifeline.

My new "parents" were so embarrassed by me they wouldn't even publicly acknowledge me. The fake heiress, Sierra, told everyone at school I was the new maid's daughter.

My parents didn't deny it.

The whole school treated me like a charity case. They isolated me, they whispered about me.

I finally snapped. "I'm not the maid's daughter. I'm Anna Landry. Sierra is the fake one!"

A group of girls cornered me in the bathroom. They slapped me, hard. "You trash. Just because Sierra's too nice to put you in your place doesn't mean we are." The leader pulled my hair, forcing me to my knees. "Look at yourself. You'll never be one of us."

I went to the principal. He just sighed. "Why do they only bully you, Anna? Maybe you should look at your own behavior. Stop spreading these fantasies. The Landrys are paying your tuition. You should be grateful."

I cried myself to sleep every night. And I studied.

I was going to get out. I was going to go to New York with Julian.

My SAT scores were high enough. Julian himself flew back and convinced my parents.

He was the one who brought me to NewY ork. He was how I met Finn.

Julian set me up in a quiet apartment near my new school. He was always the perfect gentleman. "Is the money enough?" "Are you keeping up with your classes?" "Is anyone giving you trouble?"

He was five years older. He was at Columbia; I was finishing high school. He was a guardian, a big brother.

One evening, he was on my tiny balcony, watching the sunset. "I brought you here to show you a bigger world, Anna," he said. "Not to trap you with some outdated promise. They laugh at you? Then you become so successful they can't ignore you. As for the arrangement... it's a responsibility I take seriously, not a romance. You understand?"

I understood. He didn't love me. He would never marry me.

But he was my savior. Hed pulled me out of the mud. I was just grateful.

I never expected his brother.

Finn Wilder was a hurricane. He blew into my quiet, lonely life and tore it apart.

We lived together for four years.

It started because I could cook.

It was a Saturday, pouring rain. A knock. He was in a baseball cap, trying to hide that ridiculously beautiful face. His arm was in a cast. He looked like a stray wolf, soaked and starving. "My brother says you can cook. I need food. Pot roast. And something spicy. Like, really spicy."

"Who's your brother?" I asked. "Julian. My actual brother."

He pushed past me, dripping, and started opening cabinets. He was like a raccoon. "I'm calling Julian," I said. Julian just sighed on the phone. "He escaped from the hospital. I'm on my way."

By the time Julian arrived, Finn was inhaling a plate of my spicy Kung Pao Chicken, practically vibrating. He ate the whole thing, then obediently followed Julian out. Before he left, he grabbed my phone and added his number.

That night, he texted: [Tomorrow. I want ribs.]

He moved in. His school (NYU) was an hour downtown, but he made the commute every day, just for my cooking.

He was loud. He was obnoxious. But he also sat on the couch playing video games while I studied, just so I wouldn't be alone. "I'm here, what are you scared of?"

He was the one who went, mortified, to the drugstore to buy me tampons. "This is so embarrassing, Anna."

And then, one night, everything changed.

Julian showed up. He wanted to talk about the "family arrangement" again. "It's time," he said. "We're going home to announce our engagement."