Page 84 of One of Those Amnesia Stories

The truth crushed down until there was nowhere to hide from it.

I made my wife unhappy.

My heart clenched so hard it stole the air from my lungs. Heat gathered behind my eyes, and another wave of tears spilled down my face before I could stop them. The woman I had sworn to cherish—the most important person in my life—had spent so much of our marriage hurting because of me.

And on top of everything she had endured because of me, she had been forced to deal with my mother too, and then there was—

My teeth ground together.

Cassandra.

She had gone to Alessia and spouted that absolute bullshit about some supposed connection, feeding her a story that had never existed outside her own head.

Cassandra had always been there. Since we were kids, she had hovered around Liam, always somewhere nearby, always part of the same circle. I had never looked at her and seen anything beyond Liam’s younger sister. That was all she had ever been to me. Liam’s sister. By extension, my sister too.

That was it.

That had been how every relationship in my life worked.

Every relationship in my life, except for Alessia, was an obligation. Given to me, not chosen. People I had inherited through circumstance and kept through loyalty

Our fathers were friends, so naturally we became friends. That was how it worked. One connection created another, and nobody stopped to ask whether we would have chosen each other without it. When my father’s fall from grace destroyed everything around me, I assumed Liam would walk away too. There was no reason for him to stay. Nothing binding him to the mess I had become.

But he stayed.

He stood beside me when leaving would have been easier. He gave me his loyalty when he owed me nothing.

So I gave him mine.

Alessia was different.

She was the woman I couldn’t imagine my life without, someone I’d reached for because something in me had pulled me toward her. Loving her had never felt like an obligation or a duty. It had been my choice.

I chose her.

And I’d hurt her.

When the company took a hit and we started losing people, Liam suggested bringing Cassandra in. While she worked for us, he would try to convince her to speak to their father. Get us the deal that could keep the company alive.

The plan worked.

We got the deal.

But at what cost?

The company survived.

My marriage didn’t.

And there was no one else to blame for that. No third party. No outside force. No circumstance I could point to and pretend had taken the decision out of my hands.

It was me.

Every mistake. Every failure. Every choice that had driven her away.

“I’m leaving because of you. And that is something you cannot fix.”

She was right.