By morning, Ethan's memory loss was confirmed. By afternoon, our wedding was canceled.

He remembers everyone and everything—except me.

Fresh out of the ER, he insisted on calling off the wedding. No one dared upset him, so even though it broke my heart, I went along with it.

Afterward, he joined me for one last meal.

We ordered takeout and waited half an hour, but he only took two bites before shoving it aside to scroll through his phone.

His face was still as handsome as ever, his features achingly familiar.

His brows would relax when he smiled—only to furrow when he looked at me.

If I had known Ethan would have an accident...

If I had known he'd lose his memory, I would never have let him go to the construction site.

The meal tasted like ash. My tears blended into every bite.

Ethan was busy texting someone and didn't notice.

I numbly packed my things. When I left, he didn't even glance up from his screen.

"Ethan... could you walk me out?" I asked from the doorway.

At twenty-eight, Ethan Caldwell impatiently turned off his phone and looked at me coldly. "I don't remember you. I've deleted all the photo albums. The driver is waiting outside."

Hearing that he had deleted the albums, I finally broke into tears.

The old Ethan loved taking photos—he always insisted on capturing moments whenever we went out.

In contrast, I was camera-shy, stiff-limbed, and insecure about my appearance. It was Ethan's constant encouragement that gradually brought me to life in his albums.

He would name each album and carefully transfer them whenever he changed phones, calling them his treasures—something we'd look back on together when we grew old.

But now, he had deleted them.

I had no doubt Ethan was telling the truth.

When he first woke up and heard we had been together for seven years, his face twisted in disgust.

"You're not my type. There's no way I dated you for seven years."

"What do you want? Money? Fine, name your price—take it and get out."

I stood trembling in the hospital corridor, crying helplessly, until finally Ethan's mother came to see me off.

She had never liked me—our engagement only happened because of Ethan's insistence—but that day, she stayed stone-faced and didn't say a word to me.

Now, her eyes finally held a trace of pity when she looked at me.

She said, "Ethan doesn't remember you anymore, and the engagement has to be called off. I understand your pain, but this can't be forced, can it? Here's some money—just go."

Just go...

Everyone was pushing me away.

Including Ethan.

After moving out of the apartment I'd shared with Ethan, I rented a small one-bedroom place not too far away.

Outside of work, I still hoped to see Ethan again.

If memories can be lost, what about body and muscle memory? Would that disappear too?

All I needed was for Ethan to fall in love with me again.

But I never expected Ethan to be the one to seek me out first.

He leaned against the doorway waiting for me to finish work. The dim lighting in the stairwell of the old apartment building made it hard to see his expression.

But he came to find me—he came to find me himself. Did he remember something?

I still love Ethan Caldwell. I've loved him for seven years. So when I saw him again, my heart ached, and with reddened eyes, I called out to him: "Ethan."

Hearing my voice, he stood up and approached, the faint scent of alcohol lingering on him.

"Lisa Lawson, you're really something, huh? You bribed people around me, didn't you?"

I genuinely couldn't understand what he was saying.

My feet felt rooted to the spot as I stared at him blankly. "Ethan, I don't understand what you're saying."

It seemed those words angered him. Ethan lashed out at me.

He grabbed my collar and pinned me against the wall, his hand tightening around my throat. "Stop playing dumb. Who the hell do you think you are? You bribed Derek Stratton to keep me out of the club and hotel? What did you promise Derek, huh? Did you sleep with him too, claiming to be his fiancée of seven years?"

In that moment, I began to understand.

He couldn't wait to leave me, eager to seek pleasure elsewhere, but Derek stopped him.

Derek is Ethan's childhood friend.

I knew Derek before Ethan, and he did confess his feelings to me, but nothing ever happened between us.

My strength drained away with Ethan's hurtful words. I don't know how pale my face must have looked, nor when the tears started falling.

I just stared at Ethan.

His features were still handsome, but somehow different from before.

The Ethan of the past loved me deeply—I was certain of that.

After my mother passed away and my stepmother entered the picture, my reserved nature brought me much suffering, shaping me into someone insecure and overly sensitive.

It was Ethan who pulled me out of that darkness. He constantly reassured me that I was enough—that I was beautiful, smart, capable, and worthy of love.

He could keenly sense every sorrow of mine, always taking the initiative to comfort me and surprise me. When I went abroad for graduate school and he stayed behind, he flew to see me every single week.

Once, when I went to see him, I developed a fever that night due to low blood sugar and airsickness, frightening him so much he burst into tears. After that, he began flying back and forth between my city overseas and home, never allowing me to overexert myself again.

My Ethan Caldwell, my wonderful Ethan Caldwell.

How could he possibly be this monstrous man before me, who tried to strangle me just because he was angry?

The shock and accumulated exhaustion overwhelmed me in that moment. I suddenly laughed, then immediately began crying.

My wails echoed throughout the entire hallway.

Ethan released me. He stood silently for a long while without speaking.

He said, "Lisa Lawson, I'm not your Ethan Caldwell. I won't recover those memories, and I don't love you anymore."

My Fiancé Forgot Me But Married My Stepsister — Chapter 4

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