After You Broke Me, I Became a Star

The day Nelson Vance received his college acceptance letter, he lost his memory.

He remembered everyone.

Including the first love who'd cut him off the moment he was sent to the countryside.

The only person he forgot was me.

And our marriage filled him with nothing but disgust.

“I'm in love with Joan Fox. There's no way I'd ever marry some village hick like you.”

He smashed everything I'd ever given him, and never set foot in our home again.

Even when I told him I was pregnant, all I got was a single dismissive line about my cheap tricks.

And yet.

I actually felt relieved.

No ties, no attachments. That was the only way I'd ever make it in Harbor City.

……

After the surgery for the miscarriage, I came back to the village.

Nelson spotted me from a distance. His smile faded. His eyes went cold.

Even the villagers who'd been chatting away fell silent at the same time, turning to look at me with pity.

Honestly, I didn't feel much of anything.

But the hand Bernice Pruitt had on my shoulder was trembling hard.

“That animal! And he thinks he deserves to get into Capital University.”

“If it weren't for him, you wouldn't have had to go through any of this.”

Her eyes were rimmed red, teeth clenched, and she was already stepping forward to go confront Nelson.

I held her back and shook my head gently.

“Nelson won't believe a word of it.”

Just like before.

I'd explained countless times that this marriage wasn't something I wanted. Nelson only ever sneered.

He said I was a liar through and through. He was certain I'd thrown myself into the river on purpose, let him rescue me on purpose, and deliberately used obligation and my ruined reputation to chain him for life.

Our marriage was nothing to be proud of.

Suspicion and fighting ran through nearly every day of our two years together.

In front of others, he was civil enough. He wouldn't humiliate me publicly.

Behind closed doors, he recoiled from everything I'd touched.

He'd smashed the face cream I bought him and snarled at me not to waste my effort.

He'd torn apart the new books I'd saved up to buy him.

Scraps of paper drifted through the room like snow, but there wasn't a trace of regret or sadness on Nelson's face.

“Don't think a few little gifts can make up for what you did.”

“Nanette Simmons, you're going to pay for what you've done.”

That line was a curse.

A constant reminder, hanging over me and over him.

But I hadn't done anything. Why should I have to endure this?

If I could go back, I'd rather he had never saved me……

That thought consumed me.

So much so that the next time Nelson started in on me, the words left my mouth before I could think.

He froze for a second.

Then his expression shifted to open revulsion.

“So you finally can't hold it in anymore.”

“If I could do it over, I'd never save you again.”

“Throwing away my entire life for someone like you. Not worth it.”

Too bad.

There are no do-overs in this world.

And no second chances.

Two years of being wrongly accused had taught me exactly what kind of man he was.

So.

Even though Bernice was seething, calling me a fool for swallowing the humiliation alone, I didn't change my mind.

I looked at him and smiled. I didn't feel wronged.

“I'm not a fool. I've just stopped expecting anything from him.”

Explaining yourself over and over to someone who refuses to believe you is just another way of humiliating yourself.

Isn't it?

After Nelson moved back to the sent-down youth quarters, I was the only one left in the house.

Worried I wouldn't recover properly on my own, Bernice packed up her things from the quarters and moved in with me.

Just like that.

In the mornings, she went out to work the fields. I stayed in bed.

In the afternoons, she went out to work the fields. I was still in bed.

She kept her word and didn't tell anyone about the miscarriage.

So when I missed two straight days of work, the villagers just assumed Nelson had broken my heart.