“Doesn’t anyone else think that Faye woman is disgusting? He made a mistake, and she just went along with it. How is that any
different from stealing?”
Worse than the comments were the stock prices for the Thorne and Lin families. Their partnership was terminated, and their shares plummeted. Evan had a massive fight with his father and ended up camped outside my apartment building that night.
He was holding a large box that looked vaguely familiar. He’d been drinking. The fear in his eyes from the restaurant was gone,
replaced by a desperate, obsessive glint.
“Rhea, why? Why wouldn’t you just help me a little more? Why couldn’t you just wait for me?” His voice was raw. “Do you have any
idea how cruel this is to me?”
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I fought for three years to be with you. I betrayed my family, started from nothing… no matter how hard it was, I gritted my teeth and pushed through, because as long as I was with you, no amount of suffering mattered.”
“We were so close. My company was taking off. We bought a house, a car. We were about to get married, have a beautiful child.” He stubbornly wiped a tear from his face. “We were almost there. Just a little further!”
“The moment I closed my eyes, I prayed to God to have mercy on me, to give me a chance to wake up, a chance to build a home with you. But I wake up and find myself getting engaged to someone else, while the love of my life is kissing another man.” Evan closed his eyes tightly. “Rhea, do you understand my despair?”
I nodded. How could I not? I had lived that despair over and over.
20:46
Evan looked startled for a moment, then seemed to understand. “I’m sorry, Rhea. I know I said a lot of hurtful things when I lost my memory, but please believe me, I remember everything now. I’m certain you’re the only one I love.”
He opened the large box. It was filled with all the things I had thrown away. On the very top was the pajama shirt with the giant
feather.
He looked at me, his gaze intense. “Rhea, believe me. I just mistook her for you. My love for you has never changed. Can you give
me one more chance? I swear I will make up for all the pain I caused you, piece by piece.”
He reached for my hand “Rhea, tell me you never gave up on me. Tell me Miles was just an act, just someone you hired to shack
me into remembering. Right?”
Evan’s eyes shone with a stubborn light in the moonlight. He gripped my shoulders, forcing me to look at him, to answer.
But I just laughed and pushed his hands away. I glanced at the contents of the box. “When did you pick all this up?”
Evan was silent for a moment. “…The night you threw it out, I came back and got it.”
hlet
let out a derisive snort. “So you knew something was wrong that very day. You knew you might have some deep, tangled connect-
ion to me, but you still chose Faye.”
The color drained from his face again. “That means, even knowing it might be wrong, you weighed your feelings for Faye and deci-
ded you couldn’t let her go. Is that it?”
He was speechless for a long time.
“Why won’t you admit it? I seem to recall you giving a very long, heartfelt confession right here, outside my building. Your love for
her was real.”
Evan’s eyes reddened. “It wasn’t like that, Rhea! I thought she was you! My memory tricked me. It wasn’t my fault!”
He picked up the feather pajama shirt, his eyes tracing the design. “You know, when I saw this feather that night, I was scared. My subconscious was screaming at me to stay away from you, that getting close meant danger. But when I was near Faye, my subco-
nscious told me it was safe. That it was right.”
“Rhea, that’s all in the past. I don’t believe you feel nothing for me now. You injured eight of your fingers trying to save me, and now
you’ve given me your shares in the company.
