When He Forgot Me Again

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My husband has lost his memory again.

This time, he's forgotten me and remembered his first love, Violet.

Miss Reed, change the room diffuser to rose and cedarwood. Violet loves that scent.

All clothes must be hand-washed, no detergent with any fragrance. Violet has a sensitive nose.

Oh, and once you finish making dinner, you can leave. Violet doesn't like having strangers in the house.

All afternoon, Harrison kept going on about Violet.

He treated me like I was just some newly hired caregiver.

Naturally, he didn't remember that five years ago, Violet abandoned him without hesitation when he went bankrupt.

It was me who stayed by this man's side when he hit rock bottom, when he lost his sense of smell in a car accident.

I accompanied him through the long rehabilitation.

I raised his nephewthe orphan left behind when his brother died in that crashas my own.

I even gave up touching a single drop of perfume for five whole years, all to avoid stimulating his fragile olfactory nervesme, an award-winning perfumer who'd won gold at international competitions.

My world shrank down to nothing but the bland scent of medical soap.

Half a month ago, Violet suddenly returned from abroad.

Harrison only had to glimpse her through a window, and miraculously, he remembered everything from before.

While completely erasing our five years together.

I looked at this man whose heart and eyes were full of someone else.

Slowly, I removed my sterile gloves.

"Fine. I'll leave after one last therapy session."

Since both times he lost his memory were because of Violet, why shouldn't I let go and let him have his great love?

"Harrison, I want some of that."

"Alright, open up."

Violet's long lashes lowered as her cheeks puffed out. She giggled as she swallowed the fruit Harrison fed her.

"You haven't changed at all. Still picky like before."

Harrison's slender fingers gently brushed her nose, his eyes filled with sickeningly sweet indulgence.

When he saw me approaching with the therapy tray, Violet's cheeks flushed red as she burrowed shyly into Harrison's embrace.

"Oh, stop it! There's someone else here!"

Harrison looked up at me, his gaze instantly freezing to ice.

The current him had forgotten that I wasn't some outsider.

I was his legal wife of five years.

I gave a bitter smile.

I set down the tray and retreated back to the pharmacy.

My phone vibrated.

A message popped up.

"Harrison's memory has developed selective gaps.

He only remembers his past with Violet. His olfactory nerves are extremely fragile.

To prevent further stimulation, you need to cooperate."

Frustrated, I slapped the phone facedown on the desk.

The moment I turned around, a triumphant face suddenly loomed close.

"What a joke. So what if you spent five years with him? One look at me and he forgot all about you!"

Violet wore a victor's smile.

She pulled down her scarf with a flourish, revealing a large expanse of glaring red marks.

"Your husband is really passionate in bed. Tell me, when the therapy session ends, if he can't help himself and wants me, won't that be awkward for you, the caregiver?"

My eyes fell on those garish red marks.

But my memory dragged me back involuntarily to that rainy night five years ago.

That night, Harrison was in a terrible car accident.

Bright red blood mixed with rainwater, flowing everywhere. His face was deathly pale.

I only saw him for one moment, and my heart nearly stopped from the pain.

I threw away the offer letter I'd just received from a top perfume house.

I pulled him out of the mangled car wreckage all by myself.

I stayed outside the operating room for three days and three nights before he was finally snatched back from death's door.

When he woke up, he'd forgotten the whole world and lost his prized sense of smell.

But he remembered only me. Depended on me.

I dug my nails hard into my palm, forcing myself to look away.

Before I could speak, a tall figure rushed into the pharmacy and pulled Violet into his arms.

"Violet, what are you doing in here?

There are too many smells herethey'll bother you.

Do you know that for the five years you were gone, my heart was empty?

Now that you're finally back, I don't want you out of my sight for even a second."

Burning kisses fell without restraint.

I stepped back and accidentally knocked over a glass beaker on the table.

Shards scattered everywhere.

Harrison paused and turned to look at me.

His expression was nothing short of disgusted. "Why are you still here?"

I looked down in a daze.

At the glass shards all over the floor, like looking at my own heart shattered into pieces.

Yes.

Five stolen years. I should have left long ago.

"I'm sorry. I'll leave right away."

I fled from the pharmacy.

But at the corner of the hallway, I ran into a small figure.

It was Logan.

"You're really leaving?"

He stood with his arms crossed, frowning at me.

I sighed and crouched down, trying to make my voice sound gentle.

"Logan, if you want, you can come with me."

Unexpectedly, Logan suddenly shoved me hard, pushing me to the ground.

"Violet just got back, and you already want to separate us?

Violet's rightif you hadn't been clinging to Harrison all these years, he would have gone to find her!

I hate you!

I froze in place.

The blood in my body felt like it had been drained in an instant.

This was the child I'd raised with my own hands for five years.

To take care of him, I'd given up all my social life and career.

Now, after knowing Violet for just a few days, he already hated me this much?

Fine then.

Since he didn't want to come, I wouldn't force him.

I stood up and dusted off my clothes.

I returned to my cramped guest room.

I opened the closet and started packing.

Nothing but white shirts and black pants.

Not a single pattern, not a splash of color.

After Harrison lost his sense of smell, overly bright colors also triggered physiological dizziness for him.

For five whole years, I hadn't worn a single colorful dress.

As I walked out with my suitcase, Harrison was sitting on the sofa reading a business magazine.

From the second-floor bathroom came Violet's syrupy voice.

"Harrison, I can't find the towels. Can you come in and help me?"

In the past, Harrison was extremely fastidious about cleanliness.

Except for me, if anyone came within three feet of him, he'd feel nauseous.

I thought he would frown and refuse.

But he only paused for a second before closing his magazine and calling back, "Sure, coming."

My feet felt like they were filled with lead.

Rooted to the spot.

Until a gust of wind from outside blew a velvet gift box off the entryway table.

My gaze shifted down.

The box had opened, and a dazzling diamond bracelet lay there quietly.

That was the style I'd lingered on in a brand catalog half a month ago.

At the time, Harrison had wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.

He'd kissed my earlobe, his voice low and husky. "Like it? I'll give it to you for our fifth anniversary."

Now, he stopped in his tracks and walked over to pick up the box.

He looked at the bracelet inside with complete bewilderment.

As if he had no idea how such a thing ended up in his house.

"This is..."

The clock struck twelve.

I summoned every ounce of strength to pull out a proper smile.

"Probably a surprise you prepared for Violet."

Harrison nodded without a hint of doubt and pocketed the box.

"Probably."

I gripped the handle of my suitcase and walked out the door.

It's not that I hadn't hoped he was just momentarily confused.

But I had to face reality.

He didn't remember.

These five years meant nothing to himjust a piece of waste paper he could tear up anytime.

The clock had finished chiming.

The magic was broken.

Cinderella had to return to her swamp.

Every future anniversary, he would spend with another woman.

By the time I reached my old house in the suburbs, I was soaked through from the rainstorm.

With trembling hands, I unlocked my phone.

The first post in my feed was from Violet.

It was a close-up photo.

Her slender wrist wore that latest-model diamond bracelet.

The background was Harrison's master bedroom and that enormous double bed.

Caption: "Round and round, it's still you."

Below it, Harrison had commented within seconds.

"So grateful heaven didn't let me lose you completely."

Each word was a knife.

Stabbing straight into my heart.

That bedHarrison never let me on it.

He said he couldn't stand anyone else's breathing in his bed, not even mine.

But now, with Violet, every prohibition had become foreplay.

Every boundary had become a privilege.

My heart felt like it was being sawed back and forth with a rusty blade, the pain suffocating me.

I took a hot shower.

I wrapped myself in my comforter like a cocoon.

Eyes open, I lasted until dawn.

Early the next morning, I brought two documents and knocked on the door of the Harrison residence again.

Beneath my resignation letter was a divorce agreement I'd drafted long ago.

I only hoped he'd sign it quickly without even looking.

But Harrison merely glanced at the title before coldly throwing the documents back onto the table.

"You've been my therapist for five years.

You know my condition better than anyone. Now that Violet's back, I need you to stay and help me take care of her health.

I heard you used to be a perfumer?

Violet wants a one-of-a-kind perfume as a gift for the engagement party.

Stay and create the fragrance. I'll pay you double."

I stood frozen.

My blood slowly turned ice-cold.

He wanted me, his wife, to create an engagement gift perfume for his new love?

Harrison, do you even have a heart?

Before I could refuse, the study door opened.

Dr. Morgan walked in wearing a perfectly tailored suit, a gentle smile at the corners of his mouth.

"Aria, reconnecting with familiar scents is also the best way to stimulate Harrison's olfactory nerves.

I know this puts you in a difficult position, but for the sake of his condition, you'll agree, won't you?"

Dr. Morgan.

Harrison's psychiatrist, and also his childhood friend who knew everything.

And for the past five years, the only person who knew about our secret marriage.

I clenched my clothes tightly.

No wonder Harrison suddenly wanted me to create fragrancesit was his idea.

In Harrison's love life, I was a substitute he could call on at will.

In Dr. Morgan's friendship, I was equally a pawn he could sacrifice at any moment.

Just on my way here, I'd received an offer from a perfume research institute in a southern city.

I had five days until I needed to report.

Fine then.

Why not use these five days to personally bury these ridiculous five years?

"Fine."

I looked up and met Harrison's cold gaze.

"Five days. I agree."

For five days, I locked myself in my long-sealed perfumery.

Hundreds, thousands of glass bottles filled with fragrance ingredients refracted cold light.

I closed my eyes.

My mind filled with images of Harrison and Violet.

At the highest point of an amusement park, they kissed beneath fireworks.

In a deep-sea submarine, they held hands tightly.

At a snowy mountain peak, they watched the sunrise side by side.

Those heart-stopping romances, those earth-shattering memoriesnone of them included me.

The dropper in my hand hung in midair, unable to fall.

For five years, the thing I did most with Harrison was walk in the garden.

For Logan's sake, I'd never even taken a single trip out of state.

My memories were as barren as a desert.

While Violet's memories bloomed like a garden.

That's why he could forget me so completely, without any psychological burden.

"This scent... why does it feel somehow familiar?"

The door was suddenly pushed open.

Harrison stood in the doorway, staring intently at a bottle of half-finished perfume on my desk.

Pain filled his handsome face as he pressed hard against his temples.

After the car accident, whenever Harrison was exposed to scent stimulation, it triggered severe headaches.

Instinctively, I set down the dropper and stood up to get his medication.

But he suddenly grabbed my wrist in a death grip.

The force was so strong it felt like he would crush my bones.

"Don't leave! Don't leave me!"

His eyes were bloodshot, his expression agonized.

But the way he looked at me was like looking at a complete stranger.

Who was he trying to hold onto through me?

"Harrison! What's wrong?!"

Hearing the commotion, Violet rushed in frantically.

Without a word, she shoved me hard.

I lost my balance and my lower back slammed into the hard lab bench.

A bottle of freshly extracted essential oil shattered on the floor, glass shards flying and cutting the back of my hand.

Blood immediately seeped out.

Seeing Violet appear, Harrison finally seemed like a drowning man grasping driftwood.

He pulled her tightly into his arms.

"Violet... medicine, I need my medicine! Second drawer... white bottle..."

Violet frantically pulled open the drawer.

Inside were medicine bottles of various colors and sizes.

She was nearly crying. "Harrison, which one? There are so many white bottles here!"

Of course she couldn't find it.

Harrison's medicine had always been precisely measured and prepared by me each day, placed in individual containers.

To prevent him from developing resistance to taking medication, I hid the pills inside various unflavored capsules he could accept.

The chasm of five years lay there, bloody and raw.

Violet bit her red lip and turned to glare at me with hatred.

"Are you just going to stand there?! Hurry up and bring the medicine!"

Expressionless, I stepped around the mess on the floor.

From the most hidden compartment, I took out a pill, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it over.

After taking the medicine, Harrison's breathing gradually steadied.

But Violet's eyes reddened, tears streaming down her face.

"Harrison, I'm sorry. I didn't even know where you keep your medicine..."

Harrison's heart broke for her.

He pressed her against his chest, coaxing her softly.

"Baby, don't cry. Even though you weren't by my side these five years, no one except you could enter my heart."

He glanced at me coldly, like looking at disgusting trash.

"She's just a caregiver paid to do a job. Once these few days are over, I'll make her disappear forever. I'll spend the rest of my life making up for these five years of regret. From now on, I only want you."

Blood from the back of my hand dripped onto the floor, drop by drop.

It hurt.

But compared to the pain of having a piece of my heart violently carved out, it was nothing.

I leaned against the cold wall.

Watching this couple embrace so tenderly with cold eyes.

So these five years that meant everything to me were just a regret to him.

A regret without Violet in it.

I covered my bleeding hand and silently turned to continue cleaning the shards on the lab bench.

Unexpectedly, after comforting Violet, Harrison actually returned.

Seeing my pale face and bleeding hand, there wasn't a trace of emotion in his eyes.

Only cold urging. "Can you still continue with the fragrance?

Violet hopes to use it at tomorrow's engagement party. No one knows how important this engagement is to me."

I knew.

I picked up a cloth and wiped the bloodstains from the counter bit by bit.

I didn't even look up.

"Don't worry. Since I promised you, I'll finish it."

Perhaps even if Harrison hadn't lost his memory, this would still be my final outcome.

The unlovedeven their breathing is wrong.

Five stolen years would eventually have to be returned with interest.