I don't know how to say it without going into much detail but from real life experience - trauma blocking certain memories is a real thing, not just a story cliche.
Just realized that came off pretty insensitive, so that was my bad. I meant the cliche in using it as a plot device.
I'll try not to be as careless in the future
(￣ε(#￣)Σ
No, it's okay. Yeah, sometimes they overuse the amnesia thing as a cheap plot device... But in this story it would be very fitting. With messed up lives like that I wouldn't be surprised both of them have distorted memories. In fact, you can see signs of it happening during the captivity. This story is surprisingly quite realistic.
Oh, and to explain memory loss - it's simple. When the circumstances change sometimes the brain blocks the memories. It's like you have memories while you're in the situation, but if you get in a better situation, on order to move on your brain blocks the memories. And you literally don't even realize there are years missing. Until you find physical evidence (like photos or diaries etc) or someone outright tells you what happened.
How is the author gonna explain Raymon completing forgetting Winter after they had this much history?? Is it gonna be a cliche 'trauma blocked the memories' thing?