Chapter 60

The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 60 ~AUTUMN~

There is complete silence as Atticus’s words shock us all. They’d all heard him. I hadn’t been delusional. He’d just asked me why I wasn’t wearing my ring. How could he know about that if his memory was lost?

Was it possible that Atticus had regained his memory yesterday and chose to keep it a secret from the rest of us?

Why would he do something like that? It was very unlike him. His memory still had to be missing. My Atticus would have ran to me with hugs and kisses if he’d remembered me. I wouldn’t have been able to get his hands off me.

“How do you know that Autumn usually wears a ring?” His mother asks as she waits for an answer from him.

I could feel the anticipation as everyone waited for him to explain.

This night just kept getting stranger and stranger. He knew that he had everyone on edge, and I think this is exactly what he wanted from us. He wanted us to be confused and scared until someone slipped up and gave in.

“I don’t.” He says. “But you just confirmed it for me, mother. Why does she wear a ring on that finger? Is Autumn married to someone?”

It felt like Atticus was playing with all of us. Was he giving us a chance to come clean with everything?

His entire family stood up from their seats and looked at him. Damon and Dante gave each other an alarmed look while his parents were practically gazing at him with fear.

“What do you know, Atticus?” His father asks. “Tell us what you want to find out. Why are you playing these ridiculous games with your family? If there’s something that you wish to ask, just do it.”

“Because my family, who I love and respect dearly, are the ones who chose to play ridiculous games with me first.” He Snaps.

“What’s wrong if I also join your game? I don’t have only one question to ask you. I have multiple questions, so I asked each of you to be here tonight.”

His father glares at him. “No one is playing any games with you. You’re reading too much into nothing.”

“Autumn.” He says, returning his attention to me. “You never answered my question. Why aren’t you wearing your wedding ring?

Aren’t you married?”

My lips part. Either he knew I was married to him and testing me, or he thought that I was married to someone else. Maybe Anya made up another lie and told him. That was expected from someone like her.

But Atticus didn’t look at me like he thought I was married to someone else. He almost looked as though he knew I was married to him.

“Yes, I am married.” I finally say. I spoke softly, and I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me. His family surely had, however.

His parents looked at me, and I could tell that they wanted me to keep my mouth shut. They’d wanted me to stay quiet since the beginning.

I didn’t want to lie to him anymore. I wanted him to know the truth, that is, if he didn’t already know everything.

“Autumn doesn’t like speaking about her marriage.” His mother interrupts me. “I don’t think that you should make her uncomfortable. She’s our guest.”

“Why don’t you let Autumn speak for herself, mother?” He demands. “I would like to hear the words straight from her mouth. No one else should speak for her.”

I took a deep breath. If he wanted to know the truth this much, I would tell him. There’s no use hiding it any longer.

“I don’t wear my wedding ring because it reminds me of my husband,” I confess. “And thinking about our past brings me great pain.”

He tilts his head to the side and studies me. I knew he would not stop until I told him everything he needed to know.

“Great pain?” He asks, curious. “Why does it bring you great pain? Is your husband no longer a part of your life? Did something happen that separated you from him?”

My bottom lip trembles at his question. I wasn’t sure if he was playing with me, but I didn’t like it. He had no idea how hard it’s been for me this entire time. But since he wanted to find out this way, I would continue.

“Yes,” I say. “My husband got into an accident.”

I can feel the tension rise at my words. Anya glared at me, warning me with her eyes to keep my mouth shut. Didn’t they realize by now that Atticus already knew more than he was supposed to?

He wanted to see how far everyone would continue with their lies. I didn’t want him not to trust me. I wanted him to know that I was someone he could blindly trust.

“An accident?” He repeats. “Like the one I’d gotten into?”

I fought back the tears and bit down on my lip hard. It was difficult for me to even speak about it. Whenever I thought about Atticus crashing his jeep while trying to save me, I felt great pain.

“Yes,” I answer him. “Just like the accident, you got into.”

I gasped when his hand cupped my cheek and lifted my face so that I was staring directly into his eyes. “Tell me, Autumn,” he whispers. “What is the name of your husband?”

My breath gets stuck in my throat, and even though I want to say his name, I suddenly can’t remember how to speak.

“Atticus!” Anya hissed. “What is the meaning of this? Why would you ask her that?”

He holds up his hand to silence her.

“Son.” His father tries next. “This is not the time or place for that. Let Autumn have her privacy. It’s difficult for her to speak about her marriage. Don’t remind her of the pain.”

“I’m speaking to Autumn.” He growls. “Anyone who has a problem with that can just leave.”

They all got silent after his warning.

“You can tell me.” He says softly. “Don’t listen to anyone else. Just talk to me.”

Our gazes are locked, and everyone else disappears around us.

“Atticus Fawn,” I whisper. “That’s the name of my husband.”

His face brightened at my words, and it almost seemed like he was happy that I’d chosen to tell him the truth.

He slowly lets go of me and turns toward the rest of his family.

“Don’t listen to her,” Anya shouts. “You’re not her husband. Don’t let her take advantage of your memory loss.”

He glares at her, “she’s not the one that took advantage of it. You’re the one, Anya. You are the one that lied to me. You are the one that made me believe we were still in a relationship. You are the one that I can no longer trust.”

She gapes at him, “I can’t believe you’re choosing to believe her over me.”

He laughs, “how much longer are you going to keep up the lies, Anya?” He demands.

Her eyes widen, “do you have your memories back?”

His body stills, “no.” He says. “Unfortunately, it’s still missing.”

“Then how are you so sure that Autumn is telling the truth? Why do you believe her when she says you are her husband?” Anya demands.

I couldn’t believe her. She was only making Atticus doubt her even more.

But I was also curious: How did Atticus find out the truth? Why did he believe me when I said that he was my husband?

I was surprised that he was on my side tonight. He seemed to be against everyone else but me.

He pulls out his phone and shows her the screen. I can’t see what he’s showing her, but her face goes completely still. He passed the phone around to the rest of his family. None of them could speak a single word after seeing whatever it was on his phone.

“It’s pictures of the shredded magazines you all tried to hide from me.” He tells them. “I trusted all of you. I thought that I could blindly trust my family. Now I know how wrong I’ve been my entire life. How could you keep such a big thing a secret from me? A wife? Who doesn’t tell a husband about his wife?”

“Atticus.” His mother cries. “You can trust us. When you woke up that day at the hospital and hugged Anya, we all knew that something had to be wrong. When we spoke to the doctor, he informed us that you had temporary memory loss. He mentioned that it could also be permanent from all of the trauma you’d suffered. We were only listening to the doctor’s orders. He told us to keep the truth from you until we thought you were ready to learn who Autumn was. You still thought Anya was your girlfriend and we were scared of what would happen when you learned the truth.”

His jaw clenches, “you lied to me, mother. And I don’t know how long you were planning to lie to me. Autumn was in our home, in my school, and almost everywhere I went, she was present. Yet I never once knew that she was my wife. How do you think that makes me feel? And did any of you ever once consider her feelings?”

My lips parted, shocked that Atticus cared about my feelings. He was more concerned about what I had to go through because of this lie than what he went through.

“We knew it would have been hard on her,” his father confesses. “But we were concerned about you, son. We wanted to make sure that you had fully recovered before we mentioned that you were married. The first person you were happy to see was Anya.

We thought that telling you about Autumn would have made you devastated. That’s the only reason we chose to keep it a secret from you. I know it may look bad considering the extreme measures we took to make this lie believable for you, but we never had any bad intentions.”

“Damon.” He says. “Dante. Griffin. I thought we had a better relationship than this. You all kept this secret from me. Every single one of you. And did any of you even bother to look after Autumn? Clarissa was the only one that was there for her this entire time. What about the rest of my family? If she’s my wife, I expect my family to treat her better than that. If you were forced to pretend that I was never married because of something the doctor said, why didn’t any of you ensure that she was okay?”

His family looked guilty and disappointed in themselves.

“What about me?” Anya demands. “You don’t even remember her. You remember nothing about your marriage to her. I’m the one that you still remember. My relationship with you is what you remember. Why are you still allowing her to separate us? You have no feelings for her, Atticus; you love me. Not her.”

His hands tightened into fists at his sides, and he glared at her, “you’re wrong.”

That’s all he said.

“What do you mean by that?” She demands.

“You’re wrong because I don’t love you.” He snaps. “Not anymore. Not in the way I used to love you. I may not have my memories with me, but it’s clear what I feel in my heart. You’re not the one in it. I’m sorry, Anya, but I didn’t want to hurt your feelings; I chose not to tell you the truth to protect you, but I realize now that I was wrong. I should have told you the truth and not strung you along. I guess none of us are perfect.”

Anya looked like he’d just slapped her across her face. Everyone had a look of shock on their faces. No one ever expected him to tell Anya something like that, especially not when he had lost his memories of us.

What had caused him to react this way?

“We’re sorry.” His mother apologizes. “We’re so sorry for everything. We thought we were doing the right thing by hiding the truth from you. Not once did we think that it would cause more harm. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me, to forgive us. Everyone chose to follow this lie because we asked them to. If you have to blame anyone for lying to you, blame your parents. We’re the ones that pushed for this without properly thinking everything through.”

I didn’t think he was ready to forgive them, not by the expression on his face. He was still outraged.

“I want everything that belonged to Autumn to be returned. Every single item of hers that you removed to make this lie believable, I want you to return it to its rightful place.” He orders them. “It should have never been removed, to begin with.”

I didn’t move an inch since Atticus started confronting his parents. I was in too much shock to do anything but stop and stare.

“Call her parents.” He adds. “I want Autumn to move back in today. Let them know that she’s staying here, where she belongs.”