Vivian Grant lost her memory and forgot everything about me.

Her memory stopped in the year when she loved her ex-husband most.

No matter how the people around her tried to explain it, she still believed I was the third party who had come between them.

The doctors said her amnesia might be treatable, so I held on to that hope and refused to let go.

For three years, we got divorced and remarried over and over again.

We became the biggest joke in the city's elite circles. Some people even started betting on us.

They bet on when I would finally give up, and when Vivian would finally remember.

Then news of our eighth divorce hit the trending charts again.

Reporters rushed into the law firm with cameras on their shoulders.

They shoved microphones in my face, their questions full of provocation.

"Mr. Sterling, as a divorce attorney, how does it feel to have been divorced eight times yourself?"

The firm's sign was smashed. The commendation banners clients had given me were trampled underfoot.

Before I could respond, my supervisor fired me for damaging the profession's reputation.

"Julian Sterling, let me give you some advice. Have some self-respect. Stop clinging to Ms. Grant."

I clenched my trembling hands and suddenly felt exhausted.

They were right.

This time, I really should give up.

It was still pouring when I left the law firm.

I carried the box from my desk and went home in a daze.

The door was not fully closed. From inside came bursts of laughter from Vivian Grant and Nolan Ash.

I looked around.

The place was a mess. Clothes were scattered across the floor. The carpet was stained.

On the living room TV, the news kept replaying today's scandal at the firm.

When Vivian saw me come back, the smile on her face faded.

"You still have the nerve to come back."

Her mocking words reached my ears clearly.

Nolan laughed and kissed the corner of Vivian's mouth.

"Come on. You were together for seven years. Leave him a little dignity."

Then he looked up, raised an eyebrow at me, and smiled with deliberate suggestiveness.

"Vivian's ovulating today. She wanted me badly. You don't mind, right?"

Rain dripped from my hair onto the floor.

A wave of exhaustion rose in my chest.

I did not look at the two naked people on the couch again. I turned and walked toward the bedroom.

But the moment I pushed the door open, I froze.

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you.

"This house is also under my mother's name. It has nothing to do with you. I threw all your things out.

"They should still be by the trash cans on the roadside."

Vivian's mouth curved upward. She had thrown on a jacket at random and was leaning against the wall as she watched me.

It was as if seeing me humiliated made her happy.

Pain clenched in my chest.

My soaked shirt made my whole body cold.

"You bought today's trending topic too, didn't you?

"We're already divorced. Why did you still have to cost me my job?"

At my question, Vivian raised her hand and knocked the box out of my arms.

Papers and files scattered across the floor.

They were nearly seven years of my work.

"Was three years of pestering me not enough? Even if there really was something between us before, I have amnesia now.

"If I forgot you, that means you were worthless to me!"

Those words stabbed straight into the wound again.

Three years ago, she suddenly lost her memory and forgot everything about me.

The day before she lost her memory, she had told me she was pregnant.

She had pulled me excitedly around the house, decorating the nursery and wondering whether the baby would be a boy or a girl.

But afterward, she forgot.

She remembered only Nolan.

She aborted our child. For Nolan, she even had a hymen reconstruction.

"You only forgot! You have no idea what Nolan did back then..."

Resentment and anger nearly drove me insane.

Vivian's face turned livid. She grabbed my hand hard and shoved me out the door.

The rain soaked me all over again.

"I don't care what Nolan did. I only remember that I love him. That's enough."

I opened my mouth, but suddenly every question, every grievance, seemed pointless.

Vivian avoided my eyes in irritation. Then she pulled the wedding ring off her finger.

The diamond's edge cut her skin.

She threw the ring at my feet, and as she slammed the door, she left one last sentence behind.

"Stop begging me to remarry you like some pathetic dog."

I stood there for a long time. Finally, I crouched down and picked up the ring.

Before our wedding, Vivian had designed it herself.

She had worn it for seven years and had never once taken it off.

By the roadside trash cans were our shattered wedding portrait, the scarf she had knitted for me by hand, and every album that held memories of us.

My phone suddenly rang.

I looked at the contact name and answered.

Mrs. Grant's excited voice came through.

"Julian, I just got Vivian's physical report. The doctor said her memory is loosening.

"If she keeps receiving treatment, there is an eighty percent chance she can recover!"

My fingers tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white.

The word okay reached my lips, but I could not say it.

In the end, I said softly, "Mom, let's stop the treatment. If she's forgotten, then let her forget."

The next day, I went to the Grant family estate.

I placed all eight divorce certificates in front of Mrs. Grant.

"Mom, Vivian and I got divorced again."

Mrs. Grant looked at me with pity in her eyes and let out a long sigh.

"Vivian wronged you. You two were so happy back then.

"But this time really is different. I have contacted several doctors, and they all said the chance of recovery is high."

Mrs. Grant pushed a business card toward me, hope in her eyes.

"I'm getting old. All I want is for you two to live well together.

"Lately, she has remembered quite a few things from the past..."

Before she could finish persuading me, I interrupted.

"But she has never remembered anything about me."

I lowered my head and avoided the pity in Mrs. Grant's eyes.

The room fell silent until she suddenly spoke again.

"If you leave, and Vivian remembers you but cannot find you, she will go insane."

For the past three years, every time we divorced, Mrs. Grant would say that exact sentence.

And every time, because of that sentence, my heart softened.

Again and again, I remarried Vivian.

Before I could respond, there was movement at the entryway.

Vivian walked in wearing heels, carrying several shopping bags.

The moment she saw me, her brows twisted together.

"Julian, did you come to my mother to complain again?

"I already kicked you out, and you still won't leave me alone. Can you really not live without me?"

Mrs. Grant shook with anger. She shot to her feet and slapped Vivian hard across the face.

"Have you made enough of a mess? How far are you going to push Julian?

"Without him, you would have died a long time ago."

I sat on the couch, my hands clenched into fists.

I could not help thinking of seven years ago.

Her marriage with Nolan had been painful.

Nolan had enjoyed every bit of her love, yet he had already been keeping other women outside.

When her husband's affair was exposed, she became the laughingstock of high society overnight.

When she brought people to confront him, Nolan even sold her private photos at an auction.

Then he took ten million and disappeared.

After that, Vivian developed depression. When she tried to jump into the river, I was the one who saved her.

"So what? He just wanted money, didn't he?"

Vivian still looked stubbornly at Mrs. Grant.

"I don't care what Nolan did before. I love him, and I could never love anyone else.

"I will never regret it either."

In an instant, Mrs. Grant looked as if all strength had been drained from her body.

She turned back and looked at me with apology in her eyes.

Vivian rubbed her temples, then lifted her chin as if making a concession.

"Julian, if you want to remarry me, fine. We'll only get divorced again anyway. You'll be the one embarrassed, not me.

"If you really can't live without me, then let's go to the courthouse now.

"This is your eighth divorce, isn't it?"

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. I could no longer connect the person in front of me with the Vivian in my memories.

"I came today to make things clear with Mom.

"You're free now, Vivian."

Vivian froze. Her hand trembled slightly at her side.

She stared at me in surprise, then quickly returned to normal.

"Playing hard to get, are you? Too bad that doesn't work on me.

"Fine. You said it yourself. Don't come clinging to me again."

Vivian said it through gritted teeth.

Ignoring Mrs. Grant's attempts to stop her, she threw the things in her hands onto the floor.

Then she turned and left.

Mrs. Grant nearly blacked out from anger. She shouted at Vivian's back.

"You will regret this!"

Whether Vivian would come to regret it no longer mattered to me.

After I completely gave up on her treatment, the nerves I had kept stretched tight finally loosened a little.

After leaving the Grant estate, I was about to ask Vivian to return my passport and ID.

All of my documents had been with her these past few years.

As soon as I reached a corner by the street, a sharp pain exploded across my forehead.

Hot blood gushed from the wound.

Dizziness swept over me. Before I even understood what had happened, a group of people grabbed me, pulled me around, and started punching and kicking me.

"It's him! He's the homewrecker!"

"Ms. Grant and Nolan Ash are the real couple. He just had to force himself between them."

"Disgusting. What a disgrace to the legal profession. He specializes in divorce cases, but he can't even sort out his own family mess."

The noise immediately drew the attention of passersby.

No one stepped in to help. Instead, they kept filming me with their phones.

Because I had lost too much blood, I had no strength to fight back.

When the crowd saw that I could barely resist, they gradually lost interest and left.

Before they went, they spat on me.

"We'll beat you every time we see you!"

As my vision blurred, I saw Vivian not far away.

She and Nolan were holding hands, smiling sweetly.

She looked truly happy.

When our eyes met, Vivian's expression stiffened.

Her feet instinctively moved toward me.

"You... what happened to you?"

Blood would not stop flowing. It had dyed my clothes red.

Vivian's mind seemed to go blank.

She appeared panicked. With trembling hands, she took out her phone to call emergency services.

But Nolan stopped her.

"Leave him. Maybe he staged this himself to win your sympathy.

"It only looks scary. He's fine."

Nolan pulled her away. Vivian hesitated for a moment, then turned off her phone.

She did not look at me again.

I leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, while the blood kept flowing.

In the end, I was the one who called the ambulance.

But before it arrived, I completely lost consciousness.

When I woke again, a week had passed.

The doctor said that if I had arrived any later, I might have died from blood loss.

When Mrs. Grant found out, she came to the hospital specifically to see me.

She covered all my medical bills.

"Julian, those people were too extreme. I have already handled it for you.

"Vivian, she...

"She just forgot that you have a clotting disorder."

Mrs. Grant tried to persuade me again, but when she saw how pale I looked, she swallowed the rest of her words.

I gave her a faint smile.

"Mrs. Grant, she and I are divorced now, and I won't stay in Ashford anymore.

"I won't come back again."

When Mrs. Grant heard the changed form of address, her eyes instantly reddened.

In the end, she only nodded.

"Julian, whatever you want to do, I'll help you."