Chapter 40: Chapter 40

To wake up again in a white-walled ‘prison’ was the worst thing to ever happen to Myra, for the second time. Rubbing her eyes, she surveyed the surroundings.

There were white walls, but a second glance told her she wasn’t in the hospital. She searched her mind for what she remembered last. But all she recalled was falling down the stairs in her father’s mansion before she collapsed. She and Sierra had gone home for a bit to spend the night there, and in the morning, the accident happened.

She touched her flat tummy and contemplated if her pregnancy was affected. If the fall had been so nasty, the life of her unborn child, despite still being a fetus, would be at stake. She crossed her fingers and prayed silently.

A tap on the door ensued. She quickly answered for the person to come in.

“Myra.”

The voice was most familiar in her heart, but instead of feeling happy, the familiarity of his voice was accompanied by pain. She looked up to recognise the strikingly dark eyes of Jake Yu and his sharp nose. He seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and instead of the straight sleek hairstyle she knew him to have, curls dominated his head instead.

“Jake, what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, Myra?”

“You married Yuna and left me without a word. I tried to call you, and you never told me what happened to our arranged marriage!”

“What are you talking about, Myra? We’ve been married for three years now!”

“What three-” her voice trailed off as her sight wandered towards the photographs on the dresser. The dresser was cluttered with framed photographs, all of the same design, but exploring different events in her life.

One was her graduation ceremony, another was of her happily hugging Jake on a vacation. A few more others stood harmlessly, depicting other harmonious occasions, one which was Sierra’s wedding to Teos.

On the wall, hung a gigantic photograph in a classic gold frame. She shivered to recognise herself and Jake happily smiling towards the camera, dressed in bridal wear.

“We… Are we married? And what happened to Yuna? And Hart?”

Jake looked grim as he heard her words. “Myra, it was you who told me not to speak of them.”

“All I remember was falling off the stairs in my father’s home!”

Jake’s eyes widened in shock. He inhaled and exhaled a few times, as if he was trying to curb his anger.

“Myra, that was three years ago.”

Again, three years ago? What in the world happened?

“Jake, what year is it?”

He handed her a slim silver smartphone that she had never seen before. She looked at him puzzledly before looking at the screen. The wallpaper had been a photograph of her and Jake, but she had totally no recollection of it. Catching sight of the date on the screen, she gasped loudly.

It was 21 December 2020. Three years had passed, like how Jake had said. But why had the last of her memory been until the year 2017? She didn’t quite understand.

“I really can’t remember, Jake. Are you joking? How can it be the year 2020?”

“You can ask everyone around you. Look at the newspapers, the programmes on TV, or do a web search. It’s pointless for me to lie to you.”

“Am I… really married to you, Jake?”

“Do you want to see our wedding certificate? Why would you not trust me, after all this?”

“I can’t remember, Jake!” she hollered, holding both sides of her temples with both hands. “Just give me an explanation, why all I remember is falling from the stairs and your wedding invitations with Yuna Kim!”

“Wait, wait. Why are you only remembering what happened three years ago?” Jake eyed her strangely. “If what I said is right, then this coincides with what the doctor has just said - you are suffering from partial memory loss.”

“Partial memory loss?” she repeated after him. “What happened to me?”

He sighed deeply. “You were in a rear-end collision on the way to work. You were also unconscious for quite a number of days. It’s not surprising for you to have memory loss, Myra. But to have lost such a significant number of years of your memory…”

He paused and sighed again. Myra glanced at him, seeing how pained he appeared. What was going on? Did Jake love her for real?

“Tell me, Jake. What happened that day, three years ago? Did you marry Yuna? And what about Hart? I deserve to know.”

“Myra, are you sure? You wish to know?”

“Yes!” she stated firmly. “I need to know.”

He helped her to sit up and raised her pillow so she was in a comfortable position.

“Myra, it will be a long story, but I’ll do my best to explain it to you.”

She bit on her lower lip unconsciously. “I’m ready to listen.”

“It’s the first time in two years that you have mentioned these two names. But since you don’t remember, and you insist now, I will do as you wish.

“Those wedding invitations weren’t sent by me. On the other hand, I received a contract. Something in the terms of the contract made me feel they weren’t your idea.”

“What’s wrong with the contract?” she asked.

“Firstly you wanted me to give you one million dollars before you agreed to marry me. That I fulfilled. I sent you the funds.

“Next, you wanted no sexual relations with me. I could accept that for the time being.

“But the third was that after two years, you wanted to cut ties with me and we would never have connections ever again and to never set foot in your life. Plus, any child you had with me, would never be a part of your life. How could this be your idea, Myra?”

“This is… this wasn’t the terms I agreed to!” Myra objected, almost shouting.

“Relax, Myra. I’m not blaming you.”

“But I’ve seen the contract, and it was nothing like that!” she insisted.

“Let this go for now, Myra. This isn’t the main point,” Jake continued. “My investigator traced all the evidence to Hatta Baderan. It appears he was the mastermind behind this, because of his desire to get you. However, you begged me to forgive him, and we went on with the marriage.

“But months later, he miraculously disappeared. You came to me one night, and you broke down. We spent that night together in each other’s arms, and after that, it all changed. You were never cold to me ever again. We were like a young couple deep in love, even if we couldn’t have children.”

“We couldn’t have children? What do you mean?” Myra stared at her belly. It was hard for her to accept the facts he just stated. “Do you mean, I lost my baby when I fell down the stairs?”

Jake shook his head, wiping an invisible tear from his eye. “It wasn’t because of the fall. We have a rhesus factor incompatibility, Myra. We can’t have a biological child together.”

“So my pregnancy that time-”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“Hart is sterile, Myra. The baby you conceived… was mine. But due to you being rhesus-negative and the baby rhesus-positive,” he took a few more deep breaths, “it didn’t survive. You did make it to the second trimester.”

“I… I…”

“It isn’t your fault, Myra. It just wasn’t meant to be.” He placed his hands on her arms. “You’ve mourned for a long time. I can’t say it was for this reason, but Hart left after that. Because he used an illegal identity to enter the city, nobody knew where he disappeared to.”

“I don’t know what to think, Jake, please. Leave me be.”

Myra’s eyes brimmed with tears. First the loss of her child, then the facts of what happened in the last three years were just too shocking.

Jake got up to leave the room.

“Wait, what about Yuna’s child?”

He looked at her skeptically.

“You haven’t told me what happened to Yuna,” she said, her eyes still looking teary.

“Baby? There was no baby. She used me. And she got what she just deserved.”

“That’s all, Jake. You can leave now.”

“I’ll be back to check up on you later, Myra.”

Myra nodded weakly, waving to him to signal him to leave the room. He closed the door after her with an almost soundless creak. She glanced towards her bedside table, before carefully picking up the cellphone on it.

It was a pretty rose gold phone with the symbol of an apple on it, which she knew was an iPhone. While she didn’t remember having an iPhone, she was eager to know what had happened. The phone unlocked easily with her fingerprint.

There were tons of messages, all from Jake. Many of them were asking about her day and some even carried memorable love quotes. She hadn’t remembered him to be so sweet and romantic. Next, she exited the messages application and entered the gallery.

There were 99,999 photographs and a few thousand videos between her and Jake. They had visited almost every possible location in the world. She peered down at the band on her finger, wondering what had happened. Like the colour of her smartphone, it was rose gold. It bore their initials. Could this be their wedding ring?

But why couldn’t she remember?

If indeed she loved him so much, why had she lost three years of memories?

Yet, what responded to her in her thoughts was a total blank.