The Divorce That Set Her Free

The divorce papers lay on our dining table, stark white against the mahogany. My husband, Ethan, placed them there, his voice smooth, asking for three days. Just three days, he said, for his college ex-girlfriend, Chloe. Chloe, who he swore was a ghost from his past, was now supposedly dying of a rare, aggressive cancer. Her last wish? To marry him. And for those three days, he needed me to "not remember." He pointed to a sterile vial in his hand – Compound M-7, my creation, a memory drug I' d developed. He wanted me, his wife, Dr. Evelyn Hayes, a neuroscientist, to erase myself so he could play husband to another woman. He called it "temporary amnesia," believing there was an antidote. The audacity of his request, born from convenience and a shocking lack of loyalty, shattered everything I thought we had. He didn't know M-7 was irreversible. My secret. My burden. This wasn' t just about a weekend; it was his willingness to sacrifice me, to wipe me from his life for a dying wish he' d barely questioned. How could he ask this of me? But now, seeing his betrayal so clearly, I saw M-7 not as a tool for his deceit, but as my escape. I nodded slowly, my voice steady, whispering, "Temporary." A lie. The biggest I' d ever told him. Because he thought he was borrowing my memory, he was actually handing me my true, permanent freedom.