Hearts Remember What Minds Try To Forget by Rex Wilder 19

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Lucas shifted uncomfortably, his gaze darting away, a tell–tale flicker of guilt in his eyes. “We’ve been together for so many years,” he murmured, his voice low and pleading. “Five years of marriage… you can’t just toss that aside. You’ll always be the woman I love most…” 

My face was a mask of ice, the derisive curve of my lips sharpening as I began to lay bare every one of Lucas’s past mistakes, my voice a deliberate, dangerous calm. 

“Oh, I’m your most beloved woman, am I?” My voice dripped with acid. “Beloved enough to team up with your mistress and wipe out my entire family?” 

Lucas’s face contorted in shock. He snapped his head up, only to meet my eyes, stripped bare of any affection. 

I began to advance on him, stalking him like a hunter cornering a helpless beast. Lucas instinctively recoiled, backing away with every 

step. 

My ruthless interrogation began: 

“You say I’m the woman you love most, but when Chloe ran over and killed my father, your first move was to strong–arm me into signing a settlement. You even went as far as to invent tax fraud accusations to blackmail me, all because you were terrified Chloe would go to prison. Is that how you treat the woman you claim to love most?” 

“You knew Chloe had slandered my brother, that he never attempted rape. Yet, after he fell into a vegetative state, you let her people torment him. When he was barely clinging to life, you even refused to let doctors save him. That’s your love for me?” 

“My mother endured one trauma after another, yet you dragged her here, just to force an apology out of me for Chloe, and then you let fireworks explode all over her body, scarring her from head to toe…” By the end, my eyes were glistening with unshed tears. I bit back a sob, my jaw clenched, and hissed at Lucas, “Is this your love? Every single thing you did was to appease Chloe, to offer up my entire family as proof of your allegiance to her!” 

Lucas’s scalp prickled with dread. His breath hitched, growing ragged in his chest. A wave of profound regret washed over him for everything he had done. 

“I was wrong,” Lucas rasped, his eyes rimmed with red, fixed on me with raw pain. “Every single bit of it was my fault. I shouldn’t have let Chloe cloud my judgment, and I certainly shouldn’t have hurt you the way I did.” 

“But, wife, I’ve seen the light,” he pleaded, desperation coloring his tone. “I’ve truly let go of Chloe now. Even back then, I never meant for anything serious to happen with her. She was nothing more than a foolish fantasy from my youth. I would never have left you for 

her!” 

“She’s paid the price for it all now. I’ve given the police every detail of her crimes; she’ll spend the rest of her life behind bars!” 

Lucas’s hand trembled as he gripped mine, all traces of his former pride stripped away. He was nothing but a broken man, pleading for my forgiveness. 

“I came here to explain all of this… I’m truly doing everything in my power to make amends. Please, don’t walk away from me. I can’t live without you…” He dropped his head then, pressing his forehead against the back of my hand, a silent, desperate prayer to the goddess 

he believed me to be. 

I stared at his utterly broken, groveling form, but felt absolutely nothing. My heart remained a cold, unyielding stone. 

The foolish girl who’d once loved Lucas more than life itself was gone. 

After losing my family, I was a changed woman. I slowly, deliberately, withdrew my hand. As Lucas’s tear–streaked face lifted to mine, 

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I expressionlessly ripped the necklace from my throat–a simple chain with a crystal pendant. 

It wasn’t a gift from Lucas, just a pretty little thing I’d bought for myself, cheap and insignificant. 

The crystal pendant, however, hit the floor and exploded into a thousand shards. One sharp fragment flew upward, slicing directly across Lucas’s cheek. 

A thin line of blood immediately welled up. 

I gestured to the scattered fragments on the floor, my voice flat and devoid of emotion as I addressed Lucas: “You and I, we’re like these shattered crystals. No matter how dazzling or beautiful they once were, they can never be put back together again.” With those words, I turned my back on him without a glance, striding purposefully back into the orphanage. 

Lucas lunged after me, but Evan slammed into his path, his voice cutting as he called for security. “Escort Mr. Thorne out.” 

Five or six guards clamped onto Lucas’s shoulders, their grip bruising. He thrashed, fought, but I kept walking, his desperate pleas fading with every step, his figure shrinking behind me. 

I never once glanced over my shoulder, offering Lucas nothing but a merciless, retreating back. 

Lucas’s head slumped in utter defeat as the guards finally dragged him away.