Unbroken Vows

Chapter 1

Tul awoke to a sharp pain radiating through his body. His head throbbed, and the sterile smell of the hospital room made him feel sick. The first thing he saw was the pale light filtering through the curtains. The second was a man sitting by his bedside, his face hard and unfamiliar.

“You’re awake,” the man said, his voice rough but with an edge of forced warmth. “I was worried.”

Tul blinked, his thoughts scattered. “Who…who are you?”

The man gave a small, cruel smile. “I’m Max. Your husband. Don’t you remember?”

Tul's heart raced, his mind grasping at fragments, but nothing made sense. Husband? He didn’t remember a wedding, or this man. He didn’t remember anything.

“I don’t…I don’t remember you.”

Max’s grip on the chair’s arm tightened, but his smile didn’t falter. “The doctors said you might have memory loss. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

Tul couldn’t explain the unease that settled over him, the sinking feeling in his stomach. Something wasn’t right. But he was too weak to fight it.

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Meanwhile, across the hospital, Mew was slowly recovering, his memories hazy but beginning to return in flashes. His parents sat beside him, their faces sympathetic but distant. They told him that he had been in an accident, that he was engaged to a kind woman named Lilly, who had been patiently waiting for him to get better.

Lilly arrived not long after, all smiles and tenderness. She held Mew’s hand, her touch soft but unfamiliar. Mew felt a hollow emptiness. She was lovely, no doubt, but…there was something wrong. He couldn’t place it, couldn’t shake the feeling that something – or someone – was missing.

The hospital days blurred together. Mew struggled with his recovery, but the nagging sense of loss persisted. He went through the motions, letting his parents and Lilly guide him, even though his heart felt detached.

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Tul, on the other hand, was living a nightmare. Once he was discharged from the hospital, he was taken to a small apartment by Max. There was no comfort, no warmth in the place that was supposed to be his home. Max’s true nature revealed itself quickly—he was controlling, angry, and cruel. Tul became a victim of Max’s outbursts, enduring verbal assaults and then, soon after, the physical abuse followed.

At night, when the beatings would end, Tul would lie bruised and broken, wondering why his mind could not recall the life he had before this. His memories were blank, a void, and all he had was the nightmare of Max’s presence. Every day, Max’s cruelty deepened. There were no calls from his family, no one checking in on him. He had been discarded, abandoned the moment he left the hospital.

Max had isolated him entirely.

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Mew, in the meantime, began to grow restless. Though his family and Lilly tried to fill his days with activities, none of it felt real. One day, while flipping through old photos at his parents' house, something caught his eye. It was a photograph—faded and hidden at the back of an album. It showed him standing next to a man, smiling. The man beside him had soft eyes, a gentle smile that felt…familiar.

“Who is this?” Mew asked, holding up the picture.

His mother’s expression tightened. “That was…someone you knew. Before the accident.”

“Before?” Mew pressed, feeling an ache in his chest.

“His name is Tul,” his father said bluntly, his tone harsh. “You were…close once. But it’s over now. You’ve moved on.”

Moved on. Mew studied the man in the photo, the way they stood so close, the way his own face was lit up with happiness he hadn’t felt in a long time. No matter what his parents said, he knew there was more to this. The name Tul echoed in his mind, as though it held all the answers he was seeking.

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While Mew was piecing together fragments of his past, Tul’s life with Max had turned into a living hell. The abuse escalated, with Max not just hitting him but controlling every aspect of his life. He wasn’t allowed to leave the apartment, wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone. The few times Tul tried to escape, Max would find him and drag him back, his violence growing more brutal with every attempt.

Tul’s only solace came at night, when the world was quiet, and he could lie in the dark, pretending that somewhere, there was a life he had forgotten. A life where he wasn’t broken, where love wasn’t pain. But each day, the hope of that memory grew dimmer.

And still, no one came for him.

---

Mew’s recovery progressed, but so did his determination to find out the truth. Every step he took closer to the memory of Tul, his parents tried to pull him back. Lilly’s patience began to wear thin, her smiles becoming strained.

One evening, while going through the things he had packed from his apartment—an apartment he had no memory of living in—Mew found something. A letter. Torn and crumpled, it had fallen behind a drawer. When he unfolded it, his breath caught in his throat.

It was a love letter, simple but heartfelt, signed with a name that made his heart race: Tul.

As he stared at the paper, fragments of memories began to flood back. The sound of laughter, the warmth of a shared bed, the feeling of being utterly, deeply in love. Tul. It had always been Tul.

Mew's heart pounded in his chest. He had to find him.

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But Tul was slipping away, his spirit broken, his body bruised, and hope seemed more distant than ever.

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To Be Continued...