I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 70

After a painfully long silence, she finally managed to speak.

"I hit my head. I don't remember anything that happened over the past five years."

"Ha—that's rich. Ruin people's lives and claim amnesia. Zoe, do you have any shame left at all?"

Zoe balled her hands into fists, suppressing the suffocating wave of despair crashing over her.

"Uncle Philip, what is going on? Grandmother..."

She fought desperately to hold back her tears.

"Is she really dead?"

The grandmother who loved her more than anyone else in the world was gone.

Wendy screamed at her in absolute disgust.

"Stop faking it! Grandmother died of stress because of what you did. You think pulling the amnesia card is going to make us forgive you? Just a few days ago, your precious husband called to threaten our entire family.

"My mom is right. Mrs. Thorne, please, leave us the hell alone. Your mother remarried and took most of the Lynd family fortune, leaving my dad with nothing. And because you pissed off the Thornes, Hayden forced us into bankruptcy five years ago.

"If my dad hadn't pulled some strings, we would have been homeless on the streets. And now we have to deal with threats from a husband who won't even acknowledge you in public. Mrs. Thorne, just let our family go."

Rhonda clutched Wendy tight, crying silently as her daughter tore into Zoe.

She had endured years of bitterness and humiliation.

She never expected Zoe to actually have the nerve to show up at their door.

Philip had told her to cook for Zoe—how could she possibly do that?

All she wanted was for Zoe to stay out of their lives permanently.

It wasn't just the Lynd family; her own maiden family had suffered too.

Her father's company had been ruthlessly acquired, leaving her parents with nothing but a tiny convenience store to scrape by.

Back then, her family had been highly respected business owners, but Zoe had ruined them to the point they were practically banished from New York.

"Uncle Philip, can you take me to visit Grandmother?"

Grandmother was gone, and it was all her fault.

The shock was entirely too much for Zoe to process.

Why was her life like this?

Was all this misery really because she married Hayden?

But why on earth had she married him in the first place?

"Grandmother is resting at the cemetery. Eat first, and then I'll take you."

Philip spoke to her with nothing but endless, fatherly affection, which only made Zoe feel more incredibly guilty.

She took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes.

"Uncle Philip, you have to tell me exactly what happened five years ago."