He Made Me Wear Her Face. Now He Bleeds for Me

After I lost my memory, Jake showed me a photo of his deceased first love and lied to me, claiming that it was a picture of me. He then coaxed me into undergoing nearly a hundred cosmetic surgeries to transform me into a version of myself I couldn't remember.

But fate had other plans. His first love, the woman in the photo, reappeared. It was as if nothing had changed between them. I watched helplessly as they rekindled their past romance. That was until our son, Nathan, caught them together.

Nathan immediately recognized that the woman wasn't me. His face twisted in confusion and before anyone could react, she panicked and fell into the swimming pool. She choked on the water, thrashing in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.

Blaming Nathan for causing his first love such distress, Jake immediately punished him. Ignoring the fact that our son had feared water since he was little, he insisted on throwing him into the deep end of the pool. It was as if he had forgotten the trauma Nathan had suffered from being submerged in water as a child. But Jake's anger clouded everything.

I received a distress signal from Nathan's watch and my heart stopped. Without a second thought, I rushed to the poolside, dropping to my knees. I could barely breathe as I begged him, my voice trembling with desperation, "Nathan can't swim. He'll die! If you want to punish someone, punish me..."

Jake interrupted me with a cold laugh, "Kids aren't that fragile. He's just staying in the water for a bit—he won't die."

In the end, I lost Nathan.

I was drowning in grief as I held him in my arms, trying desperately to bring him back. But at that moment, Jake was lighting sky lanterns at an auction, the bright lights marking his celebration of his seventh wedding anniversary with Claudia.

I couldn't help but wonder—what was I to him? A ghost in his life? Or something worse?

It was in that agonizing moment, as I held Nathan's body in my arms, that all the memories I'd lost suddenly came rushing back. The fog lifted and I remembered everything. I wasn't Claudia Palmer. The name on the marriage certificate was never mine. I was just Wendy Johnson.

The searing pain of loss tore through me and I dialed my mother-in-law's number. "Emily, I remember everything now. It's time for me to leave."

——

When she arrived at the hospital, she was unprepared for the sight that awaited her. As she touched Nathan's cold body, her face twisted in shock and she collapsed to the floor.

"Claudia, how could this happen?" she asked, her voice trembling.

I numbly corrected her, "Emily, I'm Wendy, not Claudia."

She looked into my sorrowful, empty eyes and it was as if the world had shifted. The realization finally sank in for her.

"Wendy, you... really remember? All of it?"

Before I could respond, a bystander nearby, holding up their phone, exclaimed, "Oh my god! Seven years and the Lawrence Group heir still loves his wife this much? Lighting sky lanterns and buying out an entire auction of jewelry to celebrate their anniversary... He really loves her! Makes you want to get married, doesn't it?"

"A husband like that? I'd marry him in a heartbeat, no matter what! Can you imagine how happy his wife and kid must be?"

Happy? The word felt like a knife to my chest. What kind of happiness was this? What kind of love must be paid with the life of a child?

Seven years ago, Emily had orchestrated the end of Jake's true love, forcing him to marry me. She had bribed Claudia with money, pressured Jake and broken their bond. No one expected Claudia to die so tragically, drowning in the sea as she was being shipped overseas after taking the bribe.

Jake, wracked with guilt, blamed me for her death. His grief turned to rage and he vowed to die with me. But what he didn't know was that his own mother had drugged him. In his frenzy, he lost control and slept with me that night.

The next morning, his hatred for me intensified. He brought over a dozen men, forcing me into that room with them and told me that as long as the child I carried was his, he would marry me.

But fate, cruel and unyielding, played its hand. The child I carried was his. Emily, eager to secure control over Lawrence Group for her son and his illegitimate half-brother, pressured me to keep the child.

Jake knelt before me, admitting his mistake. But instead of seeking forgiveness, he took advantage of the situation and had doctors remove my temporal lobe, implanting fake memories of a sweet, loving marriage between us.

From that moment on, I became Claudia Palmer. I wore her name, her face and spent seven years living a life that wasn't mine.

In those seven years, it wasn't that I hadn't noticed Jake's odd behavior toward me. If he loved me, why had he never once held Nathan? Why had he never once looked at him with the same warmth he gave to Claudia's memory?

When Nathan took his first steps and fell, crying out for Jake, Jake just walked past him without sparing a single glance. When Nathan struggled in the water, I heard him ask me for the umpteenth time, "Mommy, does Daddy hate me?"

The question echoed in my mind. Could I even answer him?