If he regains his memory, how will he feel when he remembers the time I rejected him?
Will he feel ashamed and embarrassed? Or will he just hate me even more?
"Do you have a reservation?"
The hotel receptionist asked me.
I had renovated my apartment.
The smell of formaldehyde was overwhelming, so I moved to the hotel's top floor for a short stay.
This hotel is under Kendrick's name, and he has a fixed suite here.
"Yes."
I pulled out my reservation details.
The receptionist hesitated when she saw the name on the reservation and gave me a second glance. "Please wait, I'll make a quick call."
The luxurious lobby, with its high-ceiling design, reflected the soft glow of the chandelier, making it impossible to hide anywhere.
"Mrs. Fletcher, here's your key card. The elevator is to the left."
The elevator went straight to the top floor, and as soon as the door opened, a wave of tropical rainforest air greeted me.
I had just set down my luggage when Skylar called.
"My mom made some soup for you and asked me to deliver it. Are you home?"
"I'm at the Gem Hotel. Just send someone over," I said.
"What are you doing there?" He paused. "Did you argue with him?"
I hung up the phone and started browsing an online shopping site on my phone.
Just after I finished buying a few pieces of clothing, the doorbell rang.
Skylar appeared, holding the thermos, waving it at me.
I took it from him, said thank you, and was about to close the door.
He blocked the door with his hand. "I'll wait here until you finish, then give me the thermos back."
"Are you this free?"
"Can't I come in?" He smiled. "What are you afraid of?"
The suite was spacious. I slowly sipped the bird's nest soup at the dining table while he sat on the sofa outside, lazily flipping through a book.
"The Buck family's older sister is very pleased with Kendrick Fletcher."
I didn't respond to him.
"You think he'll invite you to his wedding?"
I finished drinking, tightened the lid of the thermos.
"Alright, here you go. Thanks."
He stood up but didn't take it. "Why avoid the topic?"
"Skylar, no matter what, you're still his defeated opponent."
I was good at angering people in any situation.
"He doesn't want the Walters family's help, but I do," he said. "It's just a marriage alliance. We're all from the Fletcher family. Wouldn't it be the same if you replaced him? I can offer you more than he ever could."
"Do you think the Walters family is helping him because they think he's more capable than me?"
"Your grandfather thinks he has more power? That's because he's older. But I'm not the same anymore—"
"Because I like him."
I looked at his face. "I'm the only daughter of the Walters family, pampered since childhood. If I don't want it, what does your Fletcher family even matter?"
I was the one gambling everything.
It was me, at that funeral, who firmly chose Kendrick Fletcher, the one not loved.
What the Fletcher family refused to give him, I could provide.
The Fletcher family didn't want him.
I did.
The doorbell rang again.
When I opened the door, I saw Kendrick Fletcher's complicated expression.
We hadn't seen each other for a long time since that night.
"I thought I made myself clear enough," his voice was calm.
"Kendrick…"
"You think there are no cameras in this hotel? Using my name to stay in my room?" He asked sharply. "Or were you doing it on purpose? You know I can never control myself around you."
As he spoke, he stepped into the room, trying to slam the door shut behind him.
But when he saw Skylar in the room, he froze in place.
"Sorry."
He paused for a few seconds, then casually backed out and slammed the door shut.
Inside, the air was cold.
Skylar didn't dare to breathe too deeply.
"Why... why did he apologize to me?" Skylar said after a long pause.
He surrendered to me.
He said he would always surrender to me.
I placed the thermos carefully on the table.
I was constantly testing Kendrick's limits.
I didn't even think about what would happen if he regained his memory.
Being ridiculed and played with was the one thing he could never tolerate.
The bird's nest soup tasted strange.
By midnight, I began feeling cold and my stomach hurt.
It was an old problem—never eat with emotions.
I bought some stomach medicine, but the front desk said they couldn't deliver food upstairs.
Wrapping myself in a coat, I went downstairs to pick up the medicine, only to be hit by the cold wind, which caused a sharp pain. I sat down on the lobby sofa to rest.
I rested for so long that I fell into a daze and eventually drifted off to sleep.
"What are you doing sleeping here?"
In my dazed state, I saw Kendrick Fletcher's handsome face.
The scratch on his chin had healed, and there was no trace of it left.
"I've been waiting for you to pick me up."
I reached out my hand, wanting him to hold me.
There seemed to be more people behind him.
Probably just finished a meeting. He was always so busy.
He covered my mouth, preventing me from saying anything silly in public, to avoid revealing his thoughts. "I'll have someone send you upstairs."
I followed the curve of his arm, lying into his embrace.
His chest was hard, but deep inside, there was a warm, beating heart.
Why couldn't I get warm?
I was carried upstairs by him.
In the elevator, I leaned against his neck, dazed, and pointed at his collarbone. "Hmm, there's still a mark here."
"Keep talking, and you're going down."
Kendrick Fletcher smelled warm and clean.
He opened the door sideways, gently placing me on the bed.
"Kendrick, I'm thirsty."
He ignored my words, stepping back a few steps, sitting on the two-person sofa at the bed's foot, loosening his tie.
He stared intently at the large bed that held me.
I couldn't stop imagining it.
I was uncontrollably imagining everything that might happen in the room this afternoon.
Everything that might happen between Skylar and me.
"Kendrick, it hurts."
"It hurts?"
He knelt on the bed, grabbing my wrist with fury that had nowhere to go, pressing it deeply into the white pillowcase.
"You call out for him when you're happy, but when it hurts, you think of me?"
I turned my face, but I couldn't struggle.
He was holding me too tightly.
"He's just innocent, can't be hurt, and I'm just pretending, it doesn't matter how I am."
He squeezed my chin. "Do you even know what pain feels like?"
Tears welled up from the pain, and I looked at him with a grievance.
"I didn't. He just came to drop off some pizza, and after eating it, I got a stomach ache."
He looked at my tears and released his grip.
After a long silence, he said, "You don't need to explain to me. I have no right to ask."
"Don't be angry, please?" I reached for his hand. "My stomach really hurts right now."
His face was cold, but he didn't pull his hand away.
He placed my hand into the warmth of the blankets and gently slapped my face, as if punishing me. "You just eat whatever he feeds you? You don't even care if it's good or bad?"
"Are the Buck girls attractive?"
"What?"
"They said you went on a blind date."
"No, I turned it down." He reached for a tissue, gently wiping away my tear stains. "It was the day we went back to the old house."
His hand paused. "Shrimp's really good, but eating too much also hurts the stomach."
"Hmm, I was wrong." I rubbed against his arm. "Kendrick, my stomach hurts. Could you rub it for me?"
He adjusted my face, and through his silver-rimmed glasses, those eyes like melting ice quietly stared at me.
"Who is your husband, really?"
My heart skipped a beat, and I instantly became much more alert.
"I've looked into it. Skylar's not married, and he doesn't have a girlfriend," he propped himself up, "and you've been lying to me."
He had only lost his memory, not his intelligence.
Besides, such an easily exposed lie— I never intended to keep it hidden for long.
"If you can go back to the old house and he's not the one, there's only one possibility," his gaze darkened, and he pulled off his tie, revealing his collarbone. "That means I'm the one."
He smiled gently, but his tone was a clear threat: "Taryn, are you going to explain yourself?"
