I suffer from a hereditary form of amnesia.

By the time I found out, I had only seven days left.

On the first day, I found my boyfriend had fallen for my younger twin sister. With a bitter smile, I suggested we break up.

On the second day, my most treasured Lego set was smashed by my sister. Everyone laughed at me, saying I was disgraceful, unworthy of being a daughter of the Fleming family.

On the fourth day, I forgot that my sister was allergic to mangoes. She ended up in the hospital, and my parents glared at me with resentment. Even my ex-boyfriend accused me of being heartless.

On the seventh day, I woke up in a hospital bed to see my father walking in with a stern expression. He demanded that I quit my job and devote myself entirely to taking care of the family, as nothing more than a housekeeper.

But I only looked at them in confusion and asked softly, “Who are you?”

When they realized I had truly lost my memory, they lost their minds.

[Ms. Fleming, will you continue the treatment? If you will, don't forget to collect your medicine.]

[Ms. Fleming, your condition is quite serious. It will only deteriorate if you don't treat it. Don't give up. If you do, you'll forget everything in seven days.]

I looked at the messages from Dr. Chester Richmond for a long time without replying.

Perhaps having amnesia was not such a bad thing after all. I could not recall anything worth remembering in my entire life.

After a long moment of hesitation, I sent my response.

[Dr. Chester, thank you, but I've decided to stop the treatment.]

I locked my phone and looked at the calendar on the wall. It was the sixth anniversary of my boyfriend and I being together.

I started preparing his gift a month ago.

A tie was too common. Leather shoes were too insincere.

Ultimately, I bought him an expensive handmade watch with my personal savings.

My boyfriend, Jason Greg, worked in one of the Forbes 500 companies. He constantly met and worked with wealthy people, so he had to look the part.

I did not want him to get involved with my amnesia, so I thought of breaking up with him in person.

Jason was late to the restaurant. After a long time, I saw him frantically running over to me.

"Rachel, I'm sorry. I had to work late."

I noticed how disheveled he looked. There was a lipstick stain on the inner side of his collar.

Something in me suddenly snapped.

"You…"

Before I could continue, Jason wiped the sweat off his forehead and handed me a box. He smiled gently and said, "This is for you. Thank you for being with me for the past six years."

I looked at the gift he handed to me in a daze. I was not surprised, neither was I happy.

I opened the box to see a beautiful platinum bracelet with an intricate peony charm attached to it.

Suddenly, I understood everything.

I never liked peonies, but Raven Fleming, my younger sister, did.

Three months ago, when I first introduced Raven to Jason, he started to take a liking to her. He no longer cared about my feelings. He would always get her gifts and constantly talk about her on our dates. When Raven was there, he often left me behind, happily chatting with her.

Since when did he start to have a change of heart?

I was silent for a long time. Jason nervously asked, "What is it? Don't you like it?"

I smiled at him bitterly and said icily, "Jason, we're done."

Jason was stunned. He looked at me incredulously before springing up on his feet in anger.

He snapped, "What the hell do you mean? What is it right now? You were the one who kept complaining about how no one cared about you or how no one remembered the important days in your life.

"You were the one who asked me to spend our anniversary together! What? So, you're sick of it already? I should've listened to your sister! I shouldn't have spent so much effort preparing a surprise for you. No wonder your family likes your sister better. You're no match to her!"

He panted slightly and placed his glass down on the table hard.

I looked at Jason in disbelief.

It turned out that he was no different than all the other violent men when he got angry.

I said softly, "Jason, so your surprise is to give me a gift that Raven likes?"

He was taken aback. He suddenly looked at me with a complex gaze before looking away suspiciously.

He stuttered, "So, you're breaking up with me because you don't like the gift? If you don't like it, just tell me. Why beat around the bush?"

He shiftily took the box back and placed it in his bag.

"I'll give you another gift. I'll pretend that the breakup never happened. You're not young anymore. Don't joke around with your future."

Looking at Jason covering up his mistakes, my heart slowly sank.

On the day that I decided to give up treatment, I was still worried that he would get upset that I would be losing my memories. I wanted to be honest with him. I wanted to wish him all the happiness in the world.

It turned out that Jason did not even care how oddly I acted for the past few days. All he had on his mind was my sister, whom he had barely known for three months.

Why would I even bother caring about someone like him?

When I returned home, it was late.

I washed up quickly and headed to bed. I had terrible nightmares the entire night.

I woke up the next day to birds chirping outside the window, welcoming a brand-new day.

Six more days were left until I completely lost my memories.

I got out of bed with a slight headache and a fever. I headed downstairs groggily to get some medicine.

At the bottom of the stairs, I saw Raven toppling a huge Lego set I placed in the living room. Pieces of bricks were scattered all over the floor.

Raven stood there smugly with provocation in her eyes. "Oh, my, Rachel. I'm sorry. Your set is too bulky. I accidentally broke it."

I looked at the aftermath of the destruction in a daze. I had spent three months painstakingly putting them together piece by piece.

My eyes reddened.

It was a gift from Mom. It was also the only one.

Raven and I were twins. I was born five minutes earlier than her.

When we were born, our parents' business was just starting to grow. Since they did not have the energy to care for both of us, they decided to send one of us to our grandmother in the countryside.

I was the one sent away. My grandmother was the one who raised me.

For the past 18 years, I barely met my parents a few times. In order to console me, Mom bought me this huge Lego set on my eighth birthday.

I was overjoyed. I built the set diligently, placing it in a place where I could see the first thing when I woke up every morning.

I was naively waiting for the day when I could reconcile with my parents once again.

However, that day did not come.

Grandma passed away three months ago. It was only then that Mom and Dad finally realized that they had a child that they abandoned by the countryside.

They were forced to take me home.

I happily brought the Lego to my new home, but Mom denied that she had given it to me.

She furrowed her brows in disgust and spat, "Why did you bring such a bulky toy? It'll take up space…"

I was stunned. I looked at this mother of mine who was almost like a stranger to me.

At that moment, I suddenly realized that the warmth of the family that I have craved for the past 18 years would never happen to me.

I froze on the spot, not saying anything.

Mom, who was busy in the kitchen, heard Raven apologizing. She popped her head out to have a look.

Then, she said to Raven, "Raven, ignore her. That thing isn't expensive at all. You don't have to apologize to her."

Dad, who was reading the papers, nodded. He peeked out from the side of the papers scornfully.

"Your mother's right. This is what you'd expect from a country bumpkin, treating such cheap things as if they were precious. It's embarrassing to place it in the living area."

Then, he returned to his papers, ignoring me completely.

Raven buried herself in Mom's arms, apologizing coquettishly, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."

"There's nothing to apologize for. Just get the housekeeper to clean it up," Dad chimed in without even looking up.

The three of them left the living area, leaving me alone standing there. It seemed that they had forgotten I was also their daughter.

I was the same age as Raven. I looked like her and even sounded like her, but why did they like Raven more? They completely ignored me.

My head felt heavy, so I did not want to say anything. I dragged myself to the kitchen and found a sachet of flu medicine and drank it down with some warm water.

Raven was back on the couch, lazily dangling her slippers off her feet. She was chuckling to herself while messaging someone.

Suddenly, she played a voice message out loud.

I heard Jason's voice.

"Raven, don't get mad. It's Rachel's fault that she doesn't listen. She didn't place the Lego set properly. Don't worry. I'll get her to apologize to you."

Jason's voice reverberated throughout the entire living area. Raven looked at me smugly while putting the phone close to her mouth.

She responded with another voice message. "Don't worry about it, Jason. I'm not angry. I don't need Rachel to apologize to me."

I looked at Raven's condescending face and my heart sank.

Luckily, I chose to give up treatment. In less than seven days, I would no longer need to remember all the things that upset me. I would no longer be in pain because of Raven's provocation.

For the first time ever, I was looking forward to that day.

On the third day, my memories started to decline. I constantly forgot what I was just doing or thinking. There were many times a day when I suddenly froze on the spot.

With much difficulty, I finally remembered that I wanted to keep the Lego set that Raven had destroyed.

Although I no longer had any hope my family would come to accept me, Grandma and I built the Lego set together. It was an important memory I had of Grandma. I would not allow them to throw such memories into the trash.

I frantically headed downstairs to see that the Lego pieces were still scattered on the floor in the living area. It dawned on me that the housekeeper was on a break, so no one was around to clean up.

I found a box and picked up the Lego bricks. It took me a long time since there were too many pieces.

When Mom returned home and saw what I was doing, she yelled with a scowl on her face, "What are you doing on the floor?! Can you be more ladylike? You'll embarrass us if we ever tell others that you're our daughter!

"This is what happens when you're brought up in the countryside! No manners at all! Your grandmother was a bad influence!"

I paused what I was doing. After calming myself down, I continued picking up the Lego pieces.

The Lego set was ruined. There was no way of putting it back together, but I still wanted it as a keepsake, so I tried to pick up every piece I could find.

Mom threw her things on the couch and barked, "Did you hear what I said? Why can't you be more like your sister and cause me less trouble?"

At that moment, I was going to pick up the last piece. Just when I reached my hand out, Mom stepped on the piece and looked at me with a darkened expression.

"Tomorrow is your sister's birthday. You'll make her a cake as an apology. Don't upset her."

She looked at the Lego piece on the floor in disgust as if she had just seen a cockroach.

"It's just a stupid toy. Throw it away. Don't just do nothing all day. Do you think we'll support you for the rest of your life?"

I looked at her stepping on the Lego piece. A huge grief overwhelmed me. I looked at her right in the eyes and chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Mom, Raven and I are twins. Her birthday is also my birthday."

A pang of helplessness flashed across Mom's face.

I continued, "That piece of Lego that you're stepping on is the only gift you have given me in the past eighteen years. I was raised by Grandma because you and Dad couldn't care for two babies and you threw me to her.

"Grandma wasn't a bad influence on me. She was the best grandmother. I also don't think that I'd be embarrassing to the family."

Mom looked away shiftily and retracted her foot.

I picked up the final Lego piece and placed it in the box. Then, I looked up at Mom.

She was still avoiding my gaze. She said stiffly, "It's just a stupid box of Lego. Go and make your sister a cake. I'll just buy you a new one."

Since my parents became wealthy, a Lego set was nothing to them. It showed how unimportant I was to them.

They would rather buy me a new Lego set than let me celebrate my birthday with Raven.

I closed the box and carried it upstairs in silence.