Memory Restored, Love Destroyed Chapter 10
Jude made several attempts to bring me to the hospital after that, but I refused every time.
Slowly, I grew increasingly fed up with his persistence and pressed him more frequently about finalizing our divorce.
“Please don’t bring it up again, Serena. I won’t agree to a divorce, and I don’t want a divorce either. I know that I messed up, and I’ll make it up to you, so we’re not divorcing.”
“What’s the point of clinging on, Jude? As a psychiatrist, you know I need to stay away from the source of my trauma, which means distancing myself from you. So, why won’t you let me go?”
Jude’s eyes were bloodshot from overwhelming emotions. As a man who once obsessed over cleanliness, he had even forgotten to shave.
He grabbed my wrist and refused to let go. “That’s not it. I never meant to hurt you, and I-I just… Just don’t leave me…”
I shook him off. “We’ve been together for years, so let this be the last thing you do for me-let me go.”
With that, I packed up my bags and moved out.
A month later, just as I was preparing to file a contested lawsuit, I received signed divorce papers from Jude. He asked for nothing and took Oliver’s custody.
The paperwork went through with surprising speed. I adjusted the property division to a 70:30 split in his favor and left him the deed to the house.
He wanted to make amends, but I was thinking of Oliver, who needed a stable home and shouldn’t be left homeless just because Jude and I were getting a divorce.
When it came to custody, Oliver still chose to stay with Jude, exactly as I had hoped, though he looked at me tearfully.
After the divorce was successfully finalized, Lydia threw me a celebration party.
I invited Isabel, and Fredric came along with her. He seemed happier about the divorce than I was.
That night, he took me out in his sports car and drove toward the beach with the wind roaring past us. “At the hospital, you mentioned you loved the ocean, flowers, and all beautiful things. I want to give you all of that.”
Moonlight scattered across the water and cast a shimmering blue glow like crushed stardust that rose and fell with the waves.
Fireworks suddenly bloomed overhead and lit up the entire beach to reveal a carefully arranged sea of flowers below us. It was so beautiful that it looked exactly like a proposal scene.
I glanced at Fredric, secretly afraid that he would produce a ring and drop to one knee to propose. As much as I liked him, this was moving too fast.
He caught my distraction, guessed my thoughts, and laughed. “Relax. This is just to celebrate your divorce. If I were proposing, I wouldn’t do it this cheaply.”
Cheaply? My wedding back then hadn’t been half as grand.
Still, I relaxed and allowed myself to enjoy the fireworks and the rare bluish, shimmering glow of the sea.
Later, I bought a new place not too far away. Oliver visited once a week and told me many things about Jude.
instance, Maddie claimed her depression had relapsed, only to be discovered that it was all an act. It turned out she had never been ill in the first place and pretended to be unwell just to get close to Jude.
When Jude tried to throw her out, she grew so resentful that she tried to drug him and climb into his bed. But he spent the whole night in the bedroom and called the police as soon as he woke up.
She was detained, but after her release, she continued harassing him so much that he grew fed up.
Eventually, no one knew what he did, but he managed to send her out of the city for good. Only then did things quiet down.
A year later, Fredric formally proposed to me, and I said yes.
Our wedding was magnificent. As I walked down the aisle holding my bouquet, I spotted Jude in the crowd and the intense pain in his eyes.
Unbothered, I placed my hand in Fredric’s, the man who was crying and smiling at the same time. My heart was so full of happiness that it had long since buried the pain of the past.
Love might be ever-changing, but I would never doubt the sincerity I felt right now.
