Gaslit Wife: Drugged So I'd Forget Him

I get into a car accident on my way to surprise my husband, Theodore Vane, during one of his business trips. When I wake up, I keep mistaking people for someone else, even my own parents and husband. The first time my younger sister, Celeste Ashcroft, brings her fiancé home, I throw myself into his arms. My parents panic and quickly pull me away. "Watch yourself! That's your sister's fiancé. Theodore is still away on business." The second time, I catch my sister kissing her fiancé when I drop off her performance outfit. Without thinking, I call out Theodore's name. When my best friend, Sara Lawson, hears about it, she can't resist teasing me. "Heather, it's been so long since you've had any action with Mr. Vane that your hormones must be all over the place!" Just a few days ago, I'm running late for work, so I ask "Theodore" to drive me, making my sister miss her prenatal appointment. I feel terrible, but everyone rushes to reassure me. "Come on, your brother-in-law does look a little like Theodore. It's an easy mistake to make." Eventually, my parents take me to see a doctor because of how much I'm struggling. He tells me the accident has damaged the part of my brain responsible for recognizing people. I believe him. Until the day I go to the hospital alone for a follow-up appointment and happen to see a message from Mom in our family group chat. She's tagged Theodore. "If the baby's doing well after today's checkup, we should stop giving Heather the medication for her face blindness. What's already in her system should last until the baby's born." Theodore replies almost immediately. "Sounds good. Celeste needs more attention during her pregnancy anyway. Heather won't recognize me for a while, but we'll still need you to help cover for us, Mom." I freeze, a deafening ringing filling my ears. I'm not sick at all. They've been drugging me this whole time, just to keep me from discovering Theodore's affair with my own sister. Chapter 1 Heather's POV My hands trembled so badly that I could barely hold my phone. It wasn't until the phone vibrated that I snapped out of my daze. Every message had been deleted. The doctor studied my test results, his frown deepening at the alarming numbers. "Your cognitive function has already been damaged. The side effects of this medication are practically toxic. Does your family even care about your well-being?" I clenched my fists, my throat tightening until I couldn't get a single word out. When I remained silent, the doctor sighed. "Stop taking the medication immediately. The nerve damage is irreversible." I thanked him, grabbed my test results, and practically fled the examination room. I leaned against the wall, my strength giving out. A chill swept through me, as though I'd been plunged into ice water. Ever since my diagnosis, Mom had taken early retirement to look after my mental health. My best friend, Sara Lawson, had given up an annual bonus worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, taking a week off every month to accompany me to follow-up appointments. I'd been so touched by everything they'd done for me. But it had all been an elaborate lie. No wonder Sara had insisted on keeping my medical records for me. Whenever the doctors spoke to my parents, they never allowed me into the room. They'd divided their roles so carefully, all to keep me from discovering the truth. For two whole years, they'd been feeding me medication that caused face blindness, just so Theodore Vane and my sister, Celeste Ashcroft, could carry on their affair right under my nose. The moment tears spilled down my cheeks, a door at the end of the hallway opened. A group of people emerged, and I quickly ducked into the emergency stairwell. Theodore held Celeste in his arms and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. "Still feeling sick after throwing up?" Sara helped Celeste into her coat while Theodore wrapped a scarf around her neck. Even my mother fussed over her, adjusting her clothes. "Theodore, it's been two weeks. You should go back to Heather tomorrow before she starts getting suspicious." My mind went blank. A searing pain tore through my chest, so intense that I could barely stay on my feet. Theodore's job was unusual. He would spend half of every month away on business trips. Because he worked on classified projects, he supposedly had to surrender his phone whenever he was away. I'd tried to be an understanding wife and never burdened him with my problems. When a shady real estate agent harassed me, I'd gone to the police myself. When I'd fallen seriously ill with a fever, I'd endured it alone. But I'd never imagined that being so understanding would only make things easier for him. For the first half of every month, while he was unreachable, he played the devoted boyfriend to my younger sister. Then, for the remaining two weeks, he came home and pretended to be my loving husband. My throat tightened, and a violent wave of nausea churned in my stomach. "I just feel terrible for Celeste. Her morning sickness is at its worst, and you can't even stay with her." The next moment, Celeste began to sob. "But what if Heather finds out? We've already lied to her about so much." Sara gently wiped away her tears and reassured her. "She won't find out. Remember when she stopped taking her medication for a while and caught you two fooling around at home? We managed to talk our way out of it with just a few excuses." Mom chimed in sympathetically. "Exactly, Celeste. Don't worry so much. Right now, we're the people she depends on the most." The figures before me quickly blurred together. I remembered one time when I'd returned from a business trip and realized I'd forgotten my house keys. Without calling ahead, I'd gone straight to Mom's house. When I walked in, I found used condoms scattered across the floor. My face burning with embarrassment, I'd been carefully backing out of the room when the man who'd been in the bedroom suddenly appeared in the living room. My eyes met Theodore's, and my mind went blank. Trembling all over, I'd demanded to know why they'd betrayed me. Just as I'd grabbed a knife, my parents and Sara had rushed in with a doctor's diagnosis, insisting that my condition had worsened because I'd stopped taking my medication. After I took the pills, the man's face quickly became a blur. I'd naively believed the medication was working and apologized over and over, consumed by guilt. So that was how they'd managed to fool me all along. I wiped the tears from my cheeks, feeling as though someone had slapped me hard across the face. My head was still ringing. With trembling fingers, I pulled out my phone and called the number pinned to the top of my contacts. The calls that had never gone through before were suddenly connecting. "Theodore, is there something you're hiding from me?" Chapter 2 Heather's POV Theodore stiffened. Only after making sure I was nowhere in sight did he speak. "Why would you ask that? My project wraps up tomorrow. How about I make it up to you when I get home?" I dug my nails into my palm, struggling to keep my voice steady. "If you're lying to me, we're over." His voice remained as gentle as ever. "Heather, don't say things like that. We promised we'd spend the rest of our lives together." He sounded so sincere. There had been a time when I'd been so captivated by that tenderness that I couldn't imagine life without him. During my senior year of college, Theodore had sent me a breakup text and disappeared. I'd felt as though someone had ripped my soul out. Then, three months later, he'd appeared before me, so thin that he was barely recognizable. "You're the only woman I want. How could I ever leave you?" Only then did I learn that his family had been pressuring him into an arranged marriage. He'd spent those three months fighting them for my sake. But ever since then, I'd struggled to feel secure in our relationship. "Theodore, don't ever hide anything from me again. If you do, we're done." That very night, simply because I'd mentioned wanting to see the ocean, he'd driven over 1,200 miles with a fever of 104 degrees. The moment he stepped out of the car, he'd collapsed to the ground. Yet when he looked at me, his eyes shone brighter than a sky full of stars. "Heather, I promise I'll never keep anything from you. I'll treat you right for the rest of my life," he said. A thousand bitter words crowded my mind, but when I opened my mouth, only one escaped. "Okay." I hung up. Then I heard Mom's anxious voice. "She hasn't actually figured something out, has she? No. I can't just leave it at that." After leaving the hospital, I received a message from Mom, just as I'd expected. She wanted me to come over for dinner. I'd barely stepped through the door when Mom came downstairs. "Jeff is upstairs helping Celeste apply stretch mark cream. Have a seat for now." My hands trembled slightly at my sides. Only after checking my face for any sign of suspicion did Mom head into the kitchen. At dinner, Sara suddenly spoke up. "The baby's doing well now, and the doctor said a little intimacy is actually good during pregnancy. Celeste, you and Jeff had better follow the doctor's orders!" Theodore gave me an unreadable look. Celeste ducked her head shyly, her cheeks instantly turning red. "Stop teasing me!" "What's there to be embarrassed about? I heard you two just got a new bed. Don't tell me you broke the old one last night!" Everyone burst out laughing—everyone except me. I felt as though I'd been stripped naked and thrown into the street for everyone to stare at. Sara had spent time abroad and had never been shy about discussing sex. She'd often teased Celeste about her love life. I'd always been a little envious, though those types of conversations also made me blush. Theodore was terribly old-fashioned. Even when things got heated in bed, he always stopped after exactly 99 thrusts. Back then, whenever everyone joked so openly about sex, I'd laughed along like a fool. Little did I know that the man Celeste was sleeping with was my own husband. I couldn't bear to stay at the table any longer, so I made an excuse to go to the bathroom. As I passed the storage room, I noticed it had been renovated into a small memorial hall. Before I knew it, my feet had carried me inside. The moment I saw the name on the memorial plaque in the place of honor, my nails dug sharply into my palms. Daisy—that was the name of the baby I'd lost in a car accident. She'd been delivered by emergency C-section at just six months, only to pass away after a single cry. Beside the plaque was a note. It read, "Daisy, Aunt Celeste is having a baby. I know it must be you coming back to us. Please forgive me for hitting your mommy with my car back then." I read those words over and over for five whole minutes. My hands shook uncontrollably until tears blurred my vision. "Who said you could come in here?" Mom rushed over, crumpled the note into a ball, and grabbed my arm, trying to drag me out of the room. She refused to answer my questions. "Mom, I already saw it." She stopped trying to drag me away, her embarrassment quickly turning to anger. "Fine! I did it! Celeste and Theodore were deeply in love back then. If your baby had been born, Celeste never would've been able to handle it!" I stumbled back several steps, tears streaming down my face and into my mouth. Realizing she'd said too much, Mom softened her tone and tried to reason with me. "Heather, it's all my fault. Even if Celeste was wrong to steal your husband, you're the older sister. Can't you just let her have him?" There it was again. I was the older sister. When we were children, Mom would take Celeste to the amusement park and leave me outside in the freezing cold all day. I was the older sister. As I grew up, I'd been expected to give up everything for her, even the man I loved. I'd always had to act older than my age. And now, even my child had become a sacrifice for her sake. Yet, Celeste was actually two years older than me. Simply because she was always getting sick, I'd been forced to shoulder the responsibilities of an older sister since I was one. Looking at the complete lack of remorse on Mom's face, I asked in a trembling voice, "So you decided to poison me?" Her face went pale, and her voice rose uncontrollably. "It wasn't poison! You've always been healthy. You recover quickly, you have a good job, and you're beautiful. You can easily find someone else. Celeste has no one to rely on but us!" I opened my mouth, but all that came out were tears. Mom looked impatient. "Enough. Come out when you're done crying. You can take your anger out on me however you want, but don't keep Celeste waiting so long that she notices something's wrong." At that moment, something inside my chest seemed to shatter, breaking into pieces that could never be put back together. Just then, the door was thrown open. Chapter 3 Heather's POV "Heather!" Celeste stood in the doorway, her eyes red and her face pale. "Mom had nothing to do with it. I was the one who planned the accident." Theodore instinctively rushed forward and reached out to cover her mouth. But she shoved his hand away, tears streaming from her reddened eyes. "Heather, I'm sorry. Back then, when you told me you were coming to see Theodore, I got jealous. I didn't want you interfering with our relationship. But I never expected the brakes to fail. I made a terrible mistake. You can punish me however you want." Tears streamed down my face as I let out a bitter laugh at the absurdity of it all. "Fine. Then turn yourself in." No one seemed to have expected me to take things that far. Even Celeste froze. Just as I pulled out my phone to dial 911, Sara shoved me, her eyes red with anger. "Heather, Celeste had spent three years suffering because she couldn't openly be with the man she loves! And now she's pregnant! Do you really have to take things this far?" Mom burst into tears and slapped me across the face. "Have you lost your mind? She's your sister! If you want someone arrested, have them arrest me instead!" My cheek burned from the slap, and tears welled up in my eyes. Back when Sara's parents had abandoned her during an earthquake simply because they valued sons over daughters, I'd dug through the rubble with my bare hands until all ten of my fingers were broken, just to save her. That same day, Mom had suffered a brain hemorrhage after being struck by falling rocks. I'd paid 800 thousand dollars for her surgery, while Celeste hadn't contributed a single cent. Yet this was what I got in return for saving their lives and being their family. They had all turned against me. Theodore pulled Celeste into his arms, gently rubbing her back to calm her down before turning to glare at me. "Heather, I'm the one who wronged you. If you're angry, take it out on me. Sending Celeste to prison now would be as good as condemning her to death." I stared at him as tears fell one by one onto the floor. "So you're finally admitting that you're Theodore Vane." Theodore lowered his gaze, unable to meet my eyes. "Heather, you've always been too controlling, and you can't have children. I need a child of my own. Celeste is your sister. What's yours is hers, isn't it?" I stood there in a daze, tears still streaming down my face. After Theodore cut ties with his family, I'd done everything I could to raise the money he needed to start his own company and fulfill his dream. I'd worked at nightclubs and sung at bars. I'd even taken jobs that required me to drink with customers late into the night, until I suffered stomach bleeding and was fired from five or six different places. I'd devoted ten years of my life to that man. And in the end, all I got for my sacrifices was to be called controlling. Worse still, he had the nerve to blame me for being unable to have children. Hatred burned in my eyes. "And whose fault is it that I can't have children? My baby was six months along! She was so close to being born! What Celeste did was deliberate murder! If I report her to the police, she'll spend the rest of her life behind bars!" I was sobbing so hard that I could barely get the words out. Theodore fell silent for a few seconds. "I signed a settlement agreement right after the accident. You can't press charges against her." I froze, unable to even breathe. No wonder Celeste had been so willing to confess. When Theodore had cried over his failure to protect our baby and me and vowed to make whoever caused the accident pay, he'd already taken care of everything for her. "I'm not letting this go." Theodore's expression darkened further. He was about to say something when Celeste suddenly clutched her stomach and began to sob. "Theodore, I... I'm bleeding..." Nothing else mattered to him anymore. He scooped Celeste into his arms and rushed her to the hospital. When I got home, I logged into the social media account I'd used back when Theodore and I were deeply in love. I'd always loved taking photos, but Theodore hated showing his face online. I'd respected his wishes, though his good looks and the photos I'd taken of him from behind had still attracted a huge following. But the moment I saw the latest posts, my heart felt as though it had been torn to pieces. My entire feed was filled with photos of Theodore and Celeste, their faces clearly visible, along with pictures of them kissing. With trembling fingers, I scrolled down. In the latest post, they'd shared photos of two marriage certificates, both dated May 20. A dull, relentless ache spread through my chest and lodged in my throat. I burst into laughter, tears streaming down my face until I could barely breathe. All these years, Celeste hadn't just stolen my life. She'd been using my identity to share their everyday moments online. It turned out that I was the only outsider in this family. With trembling hands, I wrote a post explaining the truth about everything that had happened. I'd barely hit publish when Theodore called, his voice tight with anger. "Celeste already apologized to you! You scared her so badly that she started bleeding! What more do you want?" My eyes stung with tears, and I forced a bitter smile. "She got what she deserved! I lost my baby. I lost my marriage. You people destroyed everything I had! What gives you the right to carry on living as if nothing happened?" After listening to my anguished outburst, Theodore replied in a voice devoid of warmth. "Heather Ashcroft, you'd better hope you don't regret this." He hung up. I then shared my statement across every social media platform. Chapter 4 Heather's POV I also uploaded the security footage from Mom's house. The internet erupted in outrage. People called Celeste a murderer, condemned her for betraying her own sister, and branded her a shameless, two-faced liar. Yet, neither Mom nor Theodore said a single word in response. By the time I realized something was wrong, several gossip accounts had suddenly begun posting photos of me working at a nightclub during college, almost as if they'd coordinated the whole thing. With trembling hands, I opened the security footage I'd uploaded, only to discover that it had somehow been replaced with clips of me repeatedly mistaking other men for my husband. Moments later, a hashtag claiming I'd developed a mental illness after being abused by wealthy men who paid for my time shot to the top of the trending charts. Mom posted a public apology, claiming she'd failed to raise her daughter properly. Half an hour later, Theodore published photos of two marriage certificates. The caption read, "Ms. Heather Ashcroft is my wife's older sister. Due to her mental illness, she suffers from memory problems and repeatedly mistakes me for her husband. After I rejected her advances, she became resentful and decided to take revenge on my wife." Public opinion immediately turned against me. Celeste became the kindhearted Ms. Vane in everyone's eyes, while I was bombarded with vicious insults from every corner of the internet. The taste of blood suddenly filled my mouth. Theodore's number flashed across my screen. I answered, feeling completely numb. "Celeste just wants to feel secure. She never wanted to compete with you for anything. If we hadn't exposed your mental illness, you would've kept bullying her. Heather, I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. Just stop making trouble." A bitter, mocking smile crossed my tear-streaked face. Then, without warning, I heard a crash on the other end of the line. It sounded like a glass shattering, followed by what seemed to be a struggle. "Doctor! Somebody help her!" Theodore's frantic shout rang out. A moment later, his voice turned icy with rage as he roared into the phone. "Heather, how dare you hire someone to attack Celeste! If anything happens to her, I swear I'll make you pay for it for the rest of your life!" The call abruptly ended. Mom's number flashed across my screen next. The moment I answered it, her shrill, furious voice exploded through the phone. "Celeste is fighting for her life in the operating room because of you! I don't care what filthy tricks you used to hurt her. Get to the hospital right now and give her a blood transfusion!" Even through the phone, I could practically picture their furious faces, as though they wanted to tear me limb from limb. For all 25 years of my life, Mom had always taken Celeste's side. She hadn't even bothered to ask what happened before deciding I was guilty. And now she expected me to rush over and give Celeste my blood. I wiped away my tears, hung up, packed my bags, and booked a flight. I'd barely arrived at the airport when someone grabbed me roughly by the hair and dragged me into an alley. Three or four burly men surrounded me, sinister grins spreading across their tanned faces. "Boys, all we had to do was donate blood, and now we get to have a beauty like this all to ourselves. I'd say we got one hell of a deal!" A terrible sense of dread washed over me. Fear shot through every inch of my body. I struggled desperately, but just as I was about to scream for help, his words stopped me cold. "What... What blood donation?" Another man sneered and rolled up his sleeve, revealing a needle mark on his arm. "Ms. Celeste Ashcroft needs blood from a matching donor to save her life. Mr. Voss set up an emergency blood donation program and promised to grant any request made by someone who donated. No matter what they ask for." My mind went completely blank. So Theodore had given these men permission to do this to me. When Theodore found out I'd been working at a nightclub, he'd tracked down every man who'd ever harassed me in a single night. He'd dealt with them personally and sworn he'd never let anyone hurt me like that again. Yet now, for another woman's sake, he was willing to let those same things happen to me. The last shred of my composure shattered. I fumbled for my phone and frantically tried calling him. I dialed again and again, but all I got was the same cold, monotonous busy signal. Someone snatched my phone and smashed it against the ground. The man leaned in so close that I could feel his breath against my face. "Mr. Vane is praying for Ms. Ashcroft to pull through, so of course his phone's off. He also told us you've got face blindness. "Even if we hurt you, you won't be able to recognize us afterward. You won't even know who to report to the police." He stepped closer, a sinister smile spreading across his face. "Perfect. Let's see what makes a woman who's worked at a high-end nightclub so special." Hot tears streamed uncontrollably down my cheeks. … Third-Person POV Theodore stepped out of the blood donation room and checked his phone. When he saw more than a dozen missed calls, his heart gave a violent jolt. He immediately called back, but no one answered. "Kalina, has Heather called you?" Heather's mother, Kalina Mercer, shook her head. Her hand paused as she pressed a cotton ball against the needle mark on her arm. Remembering how harshly she'd spoken to Heather over the phone earlier, she felt a pang of regret. Just then, a doctor came rushing down the hallway with an emergency stretcher, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Out of the way! We have a patient who attempted suicide after being assaulted! Get the chief surgeon into the operating room, now!" Some people hurried aside, while others stopped to stare. "Hey, doesn't that look like the woman who tried to steal her sister's husband? It looks like karma caught up with her pretty quickly..." Theodore was still calling Heather over and over. But the moment he heard those words, he whipped his head around. The sight before him drained every last trace of color from his face.