So a typhoon ravaged the area and we had no internet for almost two days. Yay.
Chapter 28 Part 2
Everything
My mind literally blanked out at his answer.
"I didn't lie to you," Zach reiterated. "Least of all about something like that."
I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly before finding my voice. "But I remember that clearly... I'm sure I've been there. I know I've met Valerie before..."
The intense look in Zachary's eyes made my words falter.
What in the world was going on?
Blue eyes held my brown ones.
"Mara," Zach called without taking his eyes away.
"I'm already listening," Mara's face was a mask of confusion, glancing first at Zach before turning to me. "Are you asking me which one of you is the liar?"
I blanched, "But I'm not..."
Zach shook his head, "What are the chances that she could've developed false memories in this time?"
Mara glanced sharply at Zach as if the suggestion took her off-guard.
"False memories? Are you serious right now?" She demanded as if she couldn't believe Zachary said something too ridiculous.
But no matter how ridiculous, it had me thinking quickly. My heart thudded sharply in my chest.
"False memories..?" I repeated the words, trying to make them sink into my head. That my mind couldn't betray me further. It forgot everything and now was replacing those missing memories by creating fake ones?
A hand touched my cheek and I jumped. Zachary hold was warm and maybe it was meant to be comforting against the sudden chill of my already paled face. But his face was turned to Mara.
"What are the chances?" Zach repeated.
Mara's eyes widened at the tone. Her mind was obviously working double time.
She was my last hope. False memories on top of it all? This shouldn't be happening. I knew what I remembered. They were too vivid to be made up. And if they were false? What then was I supposed to believe in anymore.
She bit her lower lip before glancing at me. "I don't know..."
My heart dropped.
Zach cursed. And I realized I wasn't the only one with these wretched feelings. Zach seemed to be reflecting the helplessness too.
What now? What was I supposed to do now?
"I d-don't think they're false memories..."
Four heads turned at Lily's quite voice.
She stood half behind Marcus, still holding her husband's arm. The sudden attention making her flush and step just a little closer to Marcus.
"What do you mean?" Zach's eyes narrowed.
Marcus didn't like the tone used on his wife, "Watch how you talk—"
Mara who obviously didn't care for her best friends' present concerns quickly cut in. She redirected the conversation to Lily, "You don't think they're false memories? How so?"
Lily hesitated a little, looking first at Zach then at me before turning back to Mara.
"Well... I j-just think there's a much simpler explanation to what's going on." She looked to the ground. "If Scarlett says she remembers something, maybe Zachary is just really unaware of such information. Do you actually get the chance to tell another person every moment, every conversation or encounter in your life? It's not necessary even for the husband to know everything about the wife... r-right?"
Silence followed that. The lack of response made Lily squirm. Marcus, noticing this, put an arm around her.
"She has a point," Mara finally said. "That's much easier to accept. And quite honestly more plausible than false memories. Because if that's the case... I don't even want to think of it." Then turning to me, "But how do we check that?"
"M-maybe," all heads turned to Lily again, "y-you could cross check with her other memories? I-I mean if that's o-okay with you, Scarlett..."
Mara was the first to turn to me, casually asking "Well? What else do you remember? Beside that nightmare we all know as Valerie that is."
She asked as if it was the most normal thing for me to say out loud the memories I'd actually kept to myself. But I knew this exercise only meant well.
I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them again, then turned to Zach. "I... I remember the first time I met you."
Zach actually swallowed, "Go on."
"We were much much younger then. Maybe I was in third—fourth grade. You came to our house with your father for... for business and I barged into dad's office in the middle of the meeting... anyway things happened and then you wanted to see my painting... and that was the first time you called me Red."
Maybe it was the nervousness but I really couldn't elaborate. And the unreadable expression in Zach's face wasn't helping as I spoke didn't help at all.
I tried to smile to diffuse a bit of the tension I was feeling. "I didn't make sense, d-did I?"
It felt like his answer took forever.
But then he smiled as if remembering something ridiculous. "You won second place in a state-wide elementary competition. Your teacher was the one who submitted your painting..." then he smiled, "And apparently, you're extremely bad at math."
"You can't paint to save a life..." I whispered in reply.
The way Zachary stared into my eyes confirmed a connection between us that I had been doubting all this time. And that was enough to make me regret keeping this thing from him.
But that's not all you remember. I reminded myself. It would've been nice if all my memories were good ones.
"Should we leave you two for a while?" Mara teased, "We're not exactly following this conversation, you know."
Zach dropped his hand and my cheek quickly felt the cold air conditioning of the room.
I glanced at Mara, "I don't think the things I remember are false memories either. And I think I have proof."
When I was sure the whole attention was on me, I continued. "When Valerie and I met at your office then, we had a row. I told you... she was hinting on an affair. In my memories, I was more confident than I am now after the accident. I matched her tone for tone. Returning the bite in her words with much sharper ones. I think I won that battle and she was crazily angry and even grabbed my arm. She dug her nails into my left arm until it bled. And when I tried to walk out, she twisted it too."
"After I woke up in the hospital after the accident, I had a minor fracture on the wrist and little scratches on my arm. Now that I think about it carefully, aside from those, I didn't have any other physical injuries after the accident. Plus when Valerie came to your office yesterday... I mentioned that I remembered meeting her before the accident and she blamed me for accusing her of causing the accident... and maybe I was, a bit. I was fishing for information at that point. What I'm trying to say is the injuries might not be from the accident but from that time with her."
But where was I going with this exactly? Oh right, that I wasn't having false memories.
Mara glared at Zachary. "Now that you think of it, I've mentioned to you before that your secretary seemed to have a major crush on you! She was displaying acts of possessiveness over you from the onset and I kept commenting on that!" then she turned to Marcus, "I even mentioned that to you and you told me not to bother with stupid things!" Her tone was accusing.
Marcus scoffed, "Because that's not anything new. And as long as they do their job, does it really matter? We can't fire every subordinate who develops feelings for us."
As the two friends bantered, I think my mind tuned them out. I was staring at Zach but not really seeing him. I was caught in my own thoughts. I was feeling physically tired but my mind was running on too many things at the moment. This much revelations but we were still scratching the surface. It felt like my mind was already at its limits.
Zach grabbed my hand to catch my attention. I blinked at him.
There was a storm in those luminous blue eyes as he stared, "Is this why you kept those memories from me?"
I didn't understand his question and I looked at him tiredly, "What are you asking?"
"Did you really think I was having an affair with Valerie?"
And when I thought of it all... as I came back to that time and how I felt when I first remembered it... the frustration, the feeling of betrayal and hurt.
I knew I believed her words for truth. I gave him the smallest nod and looked down at our hands.
There was already a flash of something incomprehensible in Zachary's face and he squeezed my hand as if demanding that I lift my eyes to his. I did.
"Red," so I was Red again. "I would never cheat on you. Not with Valerie, not with anyone. If you can't believe anything else because you of what you do and don't remember, believe that. Always believe that."
Those words should've comforted me. but at the word cheat, the latest conversation I had with Valerie came flooding into my head.
Zachary wouldn't cheat on me. At that precise moment, I knew that to be truth.
Because in this story, the cheater wasn't him. It was never him.
It's always been you, my mind snuck in.
We were only scratching the surface of this story. And my mind was already at its limits.
"That's not everything," I told him in a small voice. "The memory I had of Valerie was just the second thing I remembered. My first memory was of going to a club. And in that memory, I kissed a stranger. That stranger didn't care that I was married...
And I didn't care either."
Here is me praying I could finish this story before I have to go to review school.