Forgotten Vows

Chapter 3

Lucian stared at me as if he was looking at a ghost as the hand holding his phone fell to his side.

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in bed. I told you not to move around too much for your sake,” he said, trying to avoid the conversation. That was enough to convince me that he truly was talking about getting divorced.

“Lucian, I want you to tell me the truth. It doesn’t matter if I remember or not. Are we in the process of getting a divorce? Is that why my things are not in the room anymore? Did I move out before the accident?”

“No, Aurora.” He shook his head, walking toward me and taking my hands in his. “Don’t worry about anything. I was on the phone about something else. It’s the press. We were talking about the press. You really shouldn’t worry. I don’t see why I would divorce you. I told you, you gave your clothes out to charity.”

I stood there, staring at him. He couldn’t possibly lie to me, but I wasn’t so sure that he was telling me everything. The only reason I backed off and didn’t push further was because the doctor assured me that I would get a hold of the memories back. I just had to wait.

“But did we ever have any big fights in our marriage? I mean, it’s all the same but all so different. My favorite vase isn’t here anymore. Not even the candles. If anything, I’m sure I wouldn’t get rid of things like that so easily.”

“It’s been three years, Aurora. Things change. You’ve changed. You just have the same sentiment as you did three years ago because that’s all you remember,” he assured me with his hands on my shoulders.

I sighed. He had an explanation for everything. There was nothing to lie about, right?

“Okay. I’ll just go take some rest,” I said as I walked back to the bedroom.

I laid under the sheets and closed my eyes. It didn’t take very long for me to be swept up in a sleep that came with a nightmare so painful that I woke up in tears.

“You’re not listening to me,” I kept saying in the dream.

“I am. I’m hearing you loud and clear,” the familiar voice said in response. I was so sure it was Lucian, but it didn’t sound like him. His voice was extremely cold, nothing like the warmth I knew.

“I don’t think you are. You don’t consider my feelings when you make decisions like these. You keep stepping all over me. What’s worse is that you let other people do the same without even trying to defend me.”

As soon as I said that, the scene of the dream changed. All of a sudden, I was standing in front of Lucian. This time, things were different. He was looking at me with so much rage. So much hate. It scared me.

“Lucian, please,” I begged. My throat felt hot and tight. I was crying.

“Enough, Aurora!” He yelled, taking a glass of the liquor from the table and smashing it against a wall, causing it to break.

My eyes tore open, and I was sitting up with a bad headache and my eyes filled with tears. I was torn between taking it as just a dream and believing it was a memory.

Lucian wasn’t one to be violent. At least that’s what I thought.

“Lucian,” I called as he walked into the room at the right time.

I watched as his brows creased and he walked towards me with worry on his face. “What happened? Why are you crying? What’s going on, Aurora?”

This man sitting beside me on the bed, taking my hands and assuring me that he was there for me was far from the man in my dream. It made me want to keep the question I had down in my throat, but I couldn’t help it. I already knew he was omitting some things, and I had to know.

“Did we ever have a big fight? Before the accident, I mean. One where you were violent with me or something.”

The room fell silent. There was nothing that I could read on his face to let me know if he was going to lie to me or tell me the truth. All he did was smile.

“All couples have fights, Aurora. But one thing I don’t think I’ll ever do is be violent. We did have minor disagreements, like when you would burn your toasts and I would complain. It was never more than small things. Why do you ask?”

His answers were perfect. One could argue that they were too perfect. But he couldn’t possibly have prepared all his lies in advance, so I knew he was telling the truth.

“You have to promise me something, Lucian.” This time, I was the one who took his hands in mine.

“Anything,” he assured.

“Promise me you’ll tell me the truth. Tell me everything, even the things you don’t think are necessary. Whenever I ask, I want nothing but the truth. Do you promise?”

This time, he hesitated. It was only for a second, but it was there. And that was enough for me to have doubts about our relationship and what was hidden in the past few years that I didn’t remember.

“I promise.”

“I had a dream. A nightmare, really. We were arguing, and you smashed a glass cup against a wall. It was so fast, and…for a second, I thought you were going to throw it at me. Lucian, I want you to tell me if that’s just a dream or if it’s a memory.”

He stayed silent for a moment. Even if he didn’t give me an answer, I believed I got my answer. It wasn’t just a dream.

“It was real, Aurora,” he finally said.

“Lucian…”

“I didn’t know you thought that I would hit you with the glass. I would never do something like that to you. I remember being exhausted from work that day. I don’t… I would never hurt you, not even in the heat of the moment.”

“It’s not just that, Lucian. You just lied to me. You said everything was a little argument. You had the chance to tell me that we had a big fight, but you didn’t.” It made me wonder what else he was hiding from me.

“I know, I just ”

My phone started to ring, and I reached over to find Mira calling.

“Are you sure you want to take that? You still need a lot of rest,” he said, looking uneasy. Why didn’t he want me to talk to Mira?

“It’s fine. You can leave. I’ll talk to her and go back to sleep. I need some pain relief for my headache, please.” That was enough to get him out of the room to help me get water for the medicine as I picked up the phone.

“Aurora! I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you like that. I was trying to look for you, but I couldn’t find you. I haven’t been able to contact you since the accident. Are you okay? Where are you now?”

“It’s okay, Mira,” I laughed at how worried she sounded. “Everything is fine. I just need to get some rest. I still sometimes believe I’m stuck in 2022, but that’s not true. As for where I am, I was discharged. I’m back home.”

“What do you mean you’re back home? I’m standing right in front of your apartment. I’ve been knocking on the door for a while now, and nobody’s answering. Are you sure?”

Time seemed to stop as I frowned. My apartment? I stood up and walked towards the balcony. This couldn’t be another dream. I knew it wasn’t.

“I’m not in an apartment, Mira. What are you talking about?” It was as if my headache had intensified.

“What do you mean you’re not in an apartment? What did you mean when you said you were back home, then? Your mom’s house? I can come over right now.”

I frowned even more. Just then, Lucian walked toward me with a raised brow. Why wasn’t Mira mentioning Lucian? Of course she had to know that that’s where I would call home. Not my mom’s house.

“I’m with Lucian, Mira.”

“Why the hell are you with that man again, Aurora?”