"Or maybe I got hit by a car and lost my memory? Maybe my whole brain got damaged?" 18-year-old Selena pressed on.
I kept my head down, stirring the coffee in front of me absently. A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
"No. Nothing like that happened. You're perfectly healthy. We got married right after graduation. At first, things were wonderful. We were inseparable, madly in love just like we'd been for years. But everything changed completely after Preston showed up."
Preston Jones joined Selena's company in its fifth year. That same year, our marriage hit the seven-year itch.
I was busy becoming the youngest attending physician at the hospital, and Selena's business was experiencing explosive growth. Her social obligations multiplied. There were endless meetings and dinner parties.
After I turned down several invitations to accompany her to those events, Selena lost her temper with me for the first time.
"Everyone else has their partner with them, but I'm married and still going everywhere alone! My business partners mock me. They want to know if it's because I'm too much of a career woman to be likable or if I'm just not making enough money to keep my husband interested in supporting my work!"
Her accusation blindsided me. I felt hurt and confused.
After all, I had always treated her like she was precious. She had never raised her voice at me before, let alone accused me so directly.
But no matter how much I loved her, I couldn't abandon medicine after studying for over a decade or throw away everything I had worked so hard to build.
Neither of us was willing to apologize first, so things turned icy between us. She moved out of our home and into a luxury riverside penthouse closer to her office. She came home maybe four or five times that entire year.
Once, I missed her so desperately that I showed up at her place on her birthday without calling ahead. But when I knocked on the door, Preston was the one who answered.
"Ms. Sloane had too much to drink tonight. She's not really in a condition to see visitors."
He didn't seem to recognize me. He just tugged at his tie, revealing faint red marks on his neck.
"Would you like to leave a message? I can pass it along when she wakes up."
I blinked back the tears threatening to fall and handed him the gift bag I was holding. I spoke slowly, enunciating each word.
"I'm Zack Holt. Tell her to call me the moment she wakes up. I need to talk to her."
Preston made a casual sound of acknowledgment, said a polite goodbye, and closed the door. But for the next two weeks, I never heard a word from Selena.
Hearing this, 18-year-old Selena couldn't hold back anymore. She hurled a glass tumbler across the room, shattering it.
"That's impossible! I would never mess around with another man! This can't be real! There has to be some kind of misunderstanding!"
I wiped the tears from my face and shook my head silently. No one wanted this to be a misunderstanding more than I did.
But not long after that incident, Preston got injured. It was some unexplained lower back injury.
Selena fussed over him constantly, both in public and in private. She even brought him to the hospital and made an appointment specifically with me for treatment.
No matter how much I tried to lie to myself, I couldn't keep denying it.
If I was struggling to accept this, the younger Selena was taking it even harder. She gulped down drink after drink, then curled up on the couch like a wounded kitten, crying softly with tears streaming down her face.
"How could I, Zacky? How could I ever hurt you like that?"
I sighed and leaned down to drape a blanket over her. Before I could straighten up, the front door opened behind me.
I turned around and locked eyes with 30-year-old Selena.
"Zack, you really know how to surprise me."
Seeing me in such an intimate position with 18-year-old Selena, her face twisted with rage.
