Chapter 3 Never divorce
1531 Words
A beautiful woman lay sprawled across the bed, her hair scattered over the sheets. She looked peaceful... too peaceful for someone who had caused so much chaos.
A man stood beside her. He watched her sleep, his eyes tracing her features slowly, carefully.
It had been a long time since he had seen her like this. She barely slept in the mansion anymore... not since she started seeing that lover of hers.
The thought made his fingers curl into a fist.
He got up from the bed side and walked out of the room. He couldn't keep staring at her face. She used to be his peace... His calming medicine, but now... All he felt when he stared on her face was disgust.
Yet... He couldn't bring himself to let her go.
Few minutes after he left the woman in the bed stirred in her sleep, she made a few grumpy noises before finally opening her eyes.
She felt the soft sheets under her as the memories of the last few hours came back.
'It was a dream.' she thought to herself... A small smile forming on her face, her eyes closing once more.
But before they completely she noticed something....
"What the fuck...?" She cursed under her breath as she stared around the huge room she was at.
This wasn't her bedroom.
It wasn't her parents bedroom which she often liked to sleep in either.
The room was foreign to her... At the same time strangely familiar.
Irene's heart skipped a beat. She sat up immediately, leaning her back on the rest.
"Where the hell is this?"
The first time she woke up, she was in the middle of nowhere which a cute kid who kept calling her 'mummy'. The second time...
It was bedroom?
Or... Was she still dreaming?
"What is going on?" She whispered in fright as she climbed down from the bed heading towards the drawers.
She needed to find something, anything that could confirm what was going on with her.
She searched around until she found something... A document of something she couldn't understand.
But the date...
January 14... 2026.
"What the hell?" She muttered, the papers shaking in her hands. She stumbled, her lips trembling in shock.
It wasn't a dream.
But it had to be...
How? Could she be in the year 2026?
Did she really time travel? What happened?
"Ahhhh!" She suddenly let out a sharp scream dropping the paper on the floor, her knees giving away.
Nelson, who had been pacing the hallway ever since he left the room, froze when he heard the scream.
His heart lurched.
He didn’t hesitate. He pushed the door open and rushed inside, his eyes immediately finding Irene crumpled on the floor, her face pale and shaken.
“What is it?” he demanded, striding toward her. “What happened? Are you alright?”
Irene lifted her head slowly, her eyes locking onto his face. Her breath hitched.
“You’re here too…” she whispered, as though seeing a ghost.
Just like before, he was taller much more manly and mature than she remembered him.
Irene shook her head in disbelief.
Nelson frowned. He didn’t like the way she was looking at him... confused, frightened, almost lost.
“What is this?” she continued, her voice trembling. “How am I... ”
“Can you drop the act already?” Nelson snapped, cutting her off. His patience was already thin. He ran in here thinking she had done something to herself... if wouldn't be the first time she would do something so stupid.
But then, she was still pretending. She was still lying, claiming that she didn't remember him.
Was this her latest act now?
He stepped back from her, glaring coldly at Irene. “No matter what you do, I will never divorce you.”
Her breath left her lungs.
“Divorce?” she echoed weakly. “We are actually married?” Her mind raced.
She really married him?!
“That kid from before… he is ours? And this isn’t a dream?”
She not only married him but had a kid? How?!
Nelson scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. He stared at her for a few seconds before shaking his head, realizing how much it was a waste of time coming there. “I don’t care what you do."
She could keep up the antics and tricks. He would never divorce her, but he had one clause. "Just next time, don’t take our kid to meet up with your lover.” he said and turned to walk away.
Irene eyes widened in horror.
Lover?! She was a slut too?
“Enel...wait!”
She pushed herself up from the floor, panic flooding her expression.
Nelson didn't know why as soon as he heard that nickname, his feet froze.
Why was she doing this to him?
“The truth is…” her voice shook, “…I can’t remember. I know it might sound crazy, but I really can’t remember anything.” Irene explained.
Nelson’s jaw tightened, but he didn't turn around. She was still insisting on it.
“I don’t remember us ever getting together,” she rushed on, afraid he wouldn’t let her finish. “I didn’t even think that was ever possible, judging by how much we hate each other.”
She swallowed hard.
“I don’t remember finishing college. Or becoming the top pianist in the country…” She hesitated, then raised her gaze from the ground to look at Nelson. “I did become that, right? Because I should have by now.”
Seven years into the future... She should have achieved all her dreams by now.
Nelson let out a cold laugh and then turned around, half amused, half annoyed. “You think I’m going to fall for your tricks?”
“Why would I?” she asked helplessly. “Even I don’t understand it.”
Which tricks?
“You really don’t?” he challenged, eyes sharp.
“Yes,” she said firmly, tears pooling in her eyes. “I don’t. I don’t remember anything that happened for the last… seven bloody years. My memory is absolutely blank.”
Silence stretched between them. Neither said anything, Nelson just stared at her, searching her eyes as though trying to judge if she was telling the truth or not.
She wiped at her eyes quickly and took a shaky breath.
“Anyways… I’m sorry,” she murmured. “For whatever you think I did.”
He seemed angry with her.
He had always been angry with her... But now, in this future, she deserved it.
She looked around the room again, as if seeing it properly for the first time.
“But judging by how we’re having problems, I don’t think this marriage was mutual,” she continued softly. “We probably never loved each other. I mean… I hated you so much, I don’t think loving you is possible.”
That one hit something raw in him... Irene was so caught up in her explanation that she didn't notice the way Nelson's jaw clenched when she said that last statement.
His body fueled with anger.
But Irene only said the things she had noticed.
For her to have a lover... Something she never thought she could do in her life, After being married with a child? Then she definitely didn't want him.
Wouldn't it be best to let her go?
“So why not just divorce me?” she finished quietly.
Her words had initially bene getting to Nelson. For a few seconds, he had allowed himself to believe the impossible... That she truly had forgotten everything that happened fot the last seven years. But the second she mentioned divorce, his face hardened.
Nelson let out a sharp laugh. “You almost had me, For almost a minute, I completely fell for your dumb tricks again.”
"You can go to so many length..." He stepped forward and then yelled. "I will never divorce you!"
Irene flinched. Before she could respond, a small crying voice drifted into the room.
“What’s that sound…?” she muttered.
Her heart stopped.
“Mummy… mummy…”
A little boy appeared at the doorway, his eyes glossy with fear, his tiny hands gripping the doorframe.
It seemed Nelson's loud voice hadn't only scared her but the kid as well.
Irene moved instinctively, kneeling in front of him without thinking.
“Hey, hey… it’s alright,” she said softly, pulling him into her arms. Her voice gentled in a way that surprised even her. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to scare you with his voice.”
The boy buried his face into her chest, clutching her tightly.
“Please don’t divorce daddy,” he whimpered. “Please… I don’t want to be alone.”
Nelson stood frozen, watching the scene unfold... her arms wrapped around their son, her expression confused yet protective, as if it came naturally.
She... He couldn't remember the last time she had hugged her son like this.
She always pushed him away, Nelson thought it was because of him.
Was this just another trick or did she really lose her memory?
- Writer
