He Faked Amnesia to Cheat, She Vanished With His Heir

On their third wedding anniversary, the gift Madison Maddox received was a video of her husband and his secretary going at it in a car, trending number one across every platform.

Every guest in that banquet hall had their eyes locked on her, waiting for the notoriously fierce Mrs. Delgado to shatter, to scream, to make a scene worthy of the headlines.

Instead, she calmly arranged for the guests to leave. Then she drove straight to the Delgado estate and said the words she'd been holding inside.

"I want to divorce Joel. I'm pregnant, and I need you to keep it from him."

Phyllis Delgado was struck by equal measures of heartbreak and shock. The woman who had loved her son so fiercely was now carrying his child, asking for a divorce, and refusing to let him know.

Madison let out a bitter laugh. She had loved Joel. When his car accident left him broken, she'd abandoned her own future and career to walk that long road beside him.

But after the wedding, Joel's "amnesia episodes" became routine. He'd forget her, forget their marriage, and lose himself in one woman after another.

She'd thrown away her dignity and her pride. She'd fought, she'd wept, she'd threatened. He'd come back to his senses and apologize, and the very next day he'd be kissing someone else on the street.

She kept telling herself he was sick. Then, the day before, she'd heard the truth.

The voice on the other end of the phone had been teasing, amused. "You really found yourself a brilliant excuse. But seriously, you don't love her anymore?"

Joel had scoffed.

"I used to. But I got bored. She's not young anymore, and she's suspicious of every little thing. Besides, what man can love just one woman his whole life?"

In that single moment, her mind went blank, and something inside her died.

Fine, then. She would leave. And she would take the child growing inside her with her.

But after the divorce, when Joel learned the truth, he would lose his mind and drop to his knees, begging for her forgiveness.

——

Their third wedding anniversary. Madison Maddox received a very special gift.

A video of Joel Delgado and his secretary tangled together in the back of his car, rocketing to the top of every trending list online.

Half an hour earlier, he had been holding her hand as they cut the anniversary cake together. His voice had been tender. "Every year from now on," he'd murmured. "Just like this."

Now every pair of eyes in the banquet hall was fixed on Madison. Curiosity, mockery, pity, all braided together. They were waiting for the famously fierce Mrs. Delgado to crack, to crumble, to give them a show.

"Ma'am, should I pull up his location?"

Spencer's expression was strained, his voice dropping lower with every word. "I'm sure it's just Mr. Delgado's amnesia flaring up again."

The old Mrs. Delgado had given strict orders: nothing was to upset the young madam today. All Spencer could do was invoke Joel's condition and hope she'd stay calm.

Madison's face showed nothing at all.

"Don't bother. The footage is grainy. Just get it taken down."

Spencer stood frozen, unable to believe what he'd heard.

The murmurs among the guests erupted like a kicked hornet's nest.

"She's not going after him? Did I hear that right?"

"Last time Joel was spotted on a date with some influencer, she'd just come out of surgery. She literally dragged herself out of bed and threatened to end herself if he didn't come home."

"And on her birthday, when he brought that little starlet? She blacklisted the girl from the entire industry and had their wedding photos playing on loop at the venue to mark her territory."

"But it's just his post-accident condition acting up. He forgets the marriage, forgets her. And every woman he goes after looks at least seventy percent like Madison."

"Exactly. That proves she's the one he really loves. But does she care? No. She makes a federal case out of every little slip. Zero compassion for what he's going through."

Every cruel word, every mocking laugh, landed in Madison's ears without missing a syllable.

They all assumed the same thing: she'd finally learned that making scenes risked losing her Mrs. Delgado title, so she was swallowing her pride at last.

Madison didn't argue. Her gaze had drifted to the wedding portrait hanging nearby, and for a moment, she lost herself in it.

Back then, his eyes had been full of love. But now she finally understood that love and vows were the most fragile things in the world. The most easily broken.

One day ago, she had overheard Joel on the phone with his best friend.

There was no intermittent amnesia. There never had been. He was simply tired of loving one woman. He wanted novelty, excitement. He remembered everything.

He remembered they'd grown up together. He remembered she was his wife.

He remembered her hysteria, her red-rimmed eyes, her begging him to come home. He'd watched her forgive him like a fool, over and over again.

Countless nights she had cried herself into exhaustion, unable to sleep.

Now she was done crying. And she was finally ready to let go.

When the dinner ended, Madison drove straight to the Delgado estate.

Phyllis had already seen the trending story. She looked at Madison with aching eyes, her hands trembling with fury.

She'd sent people to bring Joel home.

Within minutes, the phone rang. The household aide's voice came through shaking.

"Ma'am, the young master's episode has passed, but he says he's busy. He threw our people out. He asked us to pass along a message to the young madam. He says he feels terrible that his episode exposed the girl publicly, and he needs to stay and make it up to her."

"He also said the young madam handled it well, very sensible, getting the story taken down so the girl wouldn't be embarrassed. He said she's finally starting to show some—"

Phyllis hurled the phone to the floor. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

"That ungrateful boy! When is this so-called illness of his ever going to end? What you've endured, Madison... it's beyond what anyone should bear."

Madison stepped forward and steadied Phyllis by the arm. When she spoke, her voice was calm, but threaded through with a bone-deep weariness.

"Mom, I came tonight because I need you to agree to something. I want to divorce Joel."

"Five years ago, the Maddox family went bankrupt. My father was critically ill. The Delgados stepped in and saved us. Your family will always be our benefactors."

"Then Joel had his accident, and he changed completely. He was reckless, self-destructive, impossible to control. You asked me to stay, to be by his side, to pull him out of that pit and help him settle down."

"I agreed. I turned down my acceptance to one of the best schools in the country. I gave up my career, my education. I gave him everything I had. And just when I thought things were getting better, the relapses started. He kept forgetting me."

"I fought. I screamed. I tore myself apart trying to hold on. But I can't keep him anymore, and I'll never make him remember me for good."

Phyllis's eyes went red. She pulled Madison into a tight embrace, her voice breaking.

"Our family has wronged you. When your parents entrusted you to us, I promised them I'd keep you happy for the rest of your life. I never imagined..."

"After the accident, he didn't recognize a soul in this world except you. He searched for you like a man possessed. He refused to marry anyone else. And now this condition of his flares up and the only person he forgets is you."

Madison opened her mouth. He never lost his memory. The words rose to the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them back down.

She just smiled, a small, self-mocking curve of her lips.

"Mom, I'm just... so tired."

Phyllis let out a long, heavy sigh.

"All right. I respect your decision."

Madison lifted her hand and rested it against her lower belly.

"There's one more thing. Please help me keep this from him. I'm pregnant."

Phyllis froze. Her eyes went wide, dropping to Madison's stomach, and then the tears came in a flood.

"You foolish girl. You're pregnant, and you still have the heart to talk about divorce?"

A mist rose in Madison's eyes, but she held the tears back by sheer force of will.

"Mom, this baby isn't a bargaining chip. I don't want my child born into a family with no love. I don't want him growing up looking at his father and learning to regret. I can protect him. I can give him a future. Don't tell Joel about the baby. After all, he can't even remember me."

Phyllis looked at the resolve carved into every line of Madison's face. Her tears fell harder. She nodded, firmly.

"I'll handle the divorce. Don't worry. I will keep the pregnancy hidden. This is what our family owes you. What Joel owes you."

Madison dipped her head in a small nod and turned to leave.

Behind her, she heard Phyllis's choked sigh drift through the hallway:

"How did everything go so wrong..."

Madison's steps faltered for just a fraction of a second.

How did it go so wrong?

She would never forget the Joel from before the accident. Eyes full of nothing but her, treating her like she was the center of his universe.

After the crash, he'd become someone twisted. Cold and obsessive. During his episodes, he would hurt her. When he came back to himself, he'd slap his own face over and over, drop to his knees, beg her to forgive him, swear he hadn't meant it.

She had never blamed him. She had loved him with unwavering certainty.

Now she knew the truth. And her heart would never beat for him again.

She had barely made it down the front steps when her phone lit up with a massive wire transfer from Joel and a string of voice messages.

In the background, she could hear faint, breathless panting.

"Babe, you actually didn't make a scene tonight. Good girl. Keep that up."

"My headache hit again just now, and I mistook the girl for you."

"Send over that 'Only You' set, will you? The girl says I was too rough, and nothing I do is calming her down. She's obsessed with that jewelry collection of yours."