PMS1: President's Forgotten Wife

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 14: ALMOST ALPINE BREEZE

JADE was lying on her bed as she was trying to drown herself to sleep. She's been turning and turning and turning, but she can't fall asleep. Her mind has been messing up with her, and she can't clear it out of her head.

The clock hanging on the wall says it's already 2 in the morning and 2 o'clock means super late for her to sleep. If the ocean's sound wasn't scourging in the sand, then silence could've ruined her eardrums. She still has a job to do tomorrow, and she can be restless!

Jade wanted to slam her head against the wall to force herself to sleep, but she can't do that.

"Come on, Jade, you can do this! Just close your eyes and think of happy thoughts to calm your senses! Come on; you can do it!" She told herself as she slowly closed her eyes and covered herself with the thick blanket. She's blaming insomnia for the severity of it towards her. But she's not even sure if the reason behind her unable to sleep is insomnia or something—like Eisen, to be precise.

Instead of rotating around the bed, Jade had chosen to open the lampshade on the bedside table. After she opened the lamp, the yellow light illuminated the surrounding, specifically the pillows and the sheet. She was able to see her surrounding.

She stared and the ceiling for almost 2 minutes as she decided to settle the things that are messing up with her mind. The best way to ease the reason is to determine things that are bothering her. That is what she thought.

The scene immediately entered Jade's mind earlier when she's outside the house before deciding to enter the place to get some sleep.

Jade closed her eyes as she silently talked to herself, thinking deeply about what she and Eisen had talked about while they were outside the house.

[FLASHBACK]

"So please, Jade, help me remember you." his words are like a bucket of ice cubes the moment Eisen told her that. Jade became speechless as her blood runs cold. The moment eventually stopped moving as Jade looked at him—to Eisen.

How can a woman like her, acting as Eisen's fake wife, be of any help regarding his forgotten memories? How can Jade help him if she was never a part of his past, let alone his entire life? How can she possibly help him if she wasn't the real wife that the man had married three years ago?

He's not sure what she'll respond to his statement.

A part of her just wished to be honest with Eisen, but after remembering how he reacted to the truth, then she was left dumbfounded as to where she stood. But as she stared at Eisen for a little bit longer, her heart couldn't take the emotion he was showing right before his eyes. Eisen was sad, desperate, and hoping to hear a positive response from her.

Her heart is beating fast like a freaking time bomb, ready to explode. So Jade did the right thing she shouldn't do.

"Sure. I'll help you," Jade said between gritted teeth. She had no other choice but to give him hope that Eisen would be able to remember everything even without her help. Eisen didn't allow himself to believe the truth when Jade told him everything and now, lying to him is the only choice. Maybe 11 weeks will be enough to help the young man remember. That way, she could go free and return to the province to be with the family.

"Thank you, Jade." the young man joyfully responded while still not letting go of her hand.

Jade felt her heartbeat slowed down until it became routine. Staring into each other for a bit of a while, Eisen finally let go of her hand as they went inside the house, leaving her unsure of what happened.

[END OF FLASHBACK]

When Jade opened her eyes, the dark ceiling with illuminated fading light from the lampshade beside her welcomed her gaze.

She slowly raised her hand as she stared at her fingers moving, palms facing the ceiling. She closed her eyes as she let her palm recall what it felt like when her hand is pressed on Eisen's chest, reminiscing the rhythm of Eisen's heart.

The music that his heart produces became a lullaby, the solution for her to feel drowsy. The beat of his heart was like a fast tempo that slowly subsided and turned into a soft one as it flows into her roots until it reaches her heart.

Jade opened her eyes and looked back at her hand, his heart beating still ringing on the tip of her fingers.

"Is this the right choice? Urgh! I need to talk to Lewis about this. Eisen wanted to remember everything, and I am not the right fit to do it. This isn't what I signed up for in the first place. Eisen might be in good shape now, but I bet he'll kill me once he realizes that I was just a substitute of the real wife."

Jade wasn't even sure why Lewis wanted his brother to fall in love with a woman who looked the same as Alicia. Lewis could've picked a better candidate, but she ended up screwing the plan. Now, she had no choice but to look for a way out of the mess she let herself tangled.

She tried to sleep the thought out of her head after dealing with it. But speaking of Lewis, she was interrupted when Jade remembered what she and Lewis had talked about this morning. She instantly opened her eyes and heaved a deep sigh after grabbing the pillow beside her and started tossing it towards the ceiling.

[FLASHBACK]

"Fine! Do you want to know the truth? Then here is the truth! I'm doing this because I want him to fall in love with someone else..."

A low chuckle rose to Jade's throat as she disappointedly looked at Lewis. He was looking depressed in her direction, and that made her brows furrow.

"You want him to fall in love with someone else, and that someone else is what? Me?" Jade wanted to scream at Lewis because she felt like wanting to do it, but she refrained from shouting at him. Shouting won't help them solve any problem given the fact that everything is ruin.

"I just want to help my brother."

"How about me, Lewis? You wanted to help your brother forget about the woman who caused him pain by using me as the substitute? Really? The woman with the same face as Alicia? I don't want to involve myself with a married man who is suffering from a freaking amnesia!" this time, Jade didn't bother stopping herself from shouting at Lewis.

Jade already knew this job would be difficult for her part. Jade has no choice but to accept the job because she doesn't want to feel guilty for not helping Eisen, who mistook her for his wife. And she had no escape when Eisen mistook her again as his real wife when they arrived at the island.

"This is the only way I can get the divorce paper without getting Alicia involved, Jade."

"She's still basically involved, and you know that." Alicia is involved the day even before Eisen has forgotten his memories. Everyone knew that.

But Lewis just shrugged the thought off and pocketed his hands on his jeans. Jade doesn't want to be involved and become the 'desperate third party' who stole Alicia's position to earn money from a man with amnesia.

"God granted him a new life to begin. I was helping him live a life worth remembering. He suffered a lot, Jade. This is God's way of helping him move on from the pain that has caused him to choose the wrong decision. He loved Alicia more than anything in the world. Alicia became a haven to him because she was there at his worst, and the woman accepted him for who he is. He turned his back from us, his family."

"If Alicia became a haven to him, why do they ended up divorcing?"

"Because I found out that Alicia is a cheater and a liar. I saw it with my two eyes how she played with lust and desire to conquer," he whispered, enough for Jade to hear his breathless voice.

"I saw how he would negotiate with his boss to give her the project she wanted so bad. I talked to Alicia on the same day, but she told me that she's planning to end things with Eisen. I told my brother all about it, even the conversation I had with Alicia, but Eisen didn't listen to me. He told me that he would no longer recognize me as a family member because I am trying to screw up his perfect life, which I had no intention to destroy." Just because of a woman, Lewis and Eisen's relationship has to end.

"I'm sorry, Lewis." She didn't know that Lewis had a reason. She didn't know that her friend had just done this thing because of Eisen's harsh words. If only she knew, she could've understood everything from the beginning.

"I want to be his brother. This is my only way to help him with a new life without meeting Alicia. With your presence, you became the key to a lock that is impossible to be unlocked. Just let him fall for you." And he will do anything. To bring back the brother he knew from the beginning. A brother's love is incomparable.

"What if I fall for him? What if I was the one to give in? What about my feelings Lewis?" yes, she's willing to help Lewis's brother, but what about her feelings? What about her helping Eisen, but she ends up hurting herself because she shouldn't fall in love with a married man?

"And in the worst-case scenario, Eisen will be able to remember Alicia? Then all that's left of me is—" Jade wasn't able to finish her statement when the pain began sheltering her heart. With a thought of it, her falling in love with Eisen and him wishing to be with Alicia, she can't bear it all.

She just can't.

She's been reading books, and she can stop thinking of the same situation to her. What if, in the end, she's the one left shattered? In this game, she never wished to be playing. What if Jade ended up the only one falling into the trauma of holding on to someone she needed to let go of?

"I... I don't know, Jade. I'll figure it out. Just make me know what happened and the bar. When he remembers something that might help determine whether an accident happened or not, I will immediately pull you out of this. I promise to stop you from tolerating too much."

[END OF FLASHBACK]

Jade buried her face on the pillow when it landed on her after throwing it up the ceiling. What bothered her the most is how to get herself to not fall in love with a married man.

She started to feel drowsy as she slowly closed her eyes. Her eyelids began to feel heavy, along with her body, when her muscles began to calm. As soon as she closed her eyes, Eisen's image flashes just right in front of her as questions started to subside.

She needs to stop herself from falling. Because if she does end up having feelings for Eisen, she sure will end up shattered on her own accord.

__________

JADE could hardly open her eyes when she heard her phone buzzed. It's just six in the morning, and she still wants to sleep. Thirty minutes more, and Jade will get out of bed.

But before she could even go back to her sweet dream, Jade was interrupted again with the phone buzzing at the bedside table. Out of frustration, she angrily rose from the bed and grumpily looked at her phone.

Jade grabbed her phone and absentmindedly threw it harshly towards the bathroom for it to stop bothering her. This is not the right time to make her blood boil because her head has been spinning since her phone started ringing to wake her up.

The phone caused a loud thud as it collided with the floor and a sound of the broken glass followed. Jade went back to sleep and covered herself with the thick blanket after that, but within five seconds, she instantly went out of bed and hurriedly run towards the bathroom, only to find out that her phone was lying on the floor.

"No, no, no!" she shouted as she kneeled in front of her phone. She raised it just below her breast and checked if the phone is still working. But sadness overpowered her worries when she saw multiple cracks on the screen, "Oh!"

She deliberately facepalmed herself after that. She can't help but smile bitterly and sincerely prayed that her phone is still working. Because if it doesn't work, she won't be able to contact her parents or friends because she didn't memorize all of their numbers.

Jade was able to breathe correctly as soon as her phone turned on. The screen wasn't functioning correctly, but she can still endure to use it. She'll buy a new one once she earned enough money to buy it for herself.

She intently closed her eyes with a heavy heart. "I should start controlling my anger whenever I short on sleep. I don't need this kind of attitude, most especially when I work."

Jade stood up from the bathroom floor and closed the door behind her, while her other hand still dearly held onto the phone. What happened earlier caused her a mini heart attack that wholly washed Jade's daydreaming state. Jade could've avoided throwing her phone away like that, but now, she can't turn back time to undo what she has done. Poor her.

Thanks to what happened last night, she couldn't get some sleep, and because of it, she made drastic actions that brought her karma. And like what they said, karma is just right above the corner.