The Accident Was No Mistake: My CEO Husband Wants Me Back
I spent years loving Roman Ashford, believing that one day he would finally love me the way I loved him.
I was wrong.
I gave up my dreams for our marriage, only to become a stranger in my own home. I waited for his attention, sacrificed everything for us, and slowly lost myself while Roman gave everything to the empire he was destined to inherit.
So I decided to leave him.
But before I could walk away, an accident changed everything.
When I woke up, I couldn’t remember my husband, my family, or the life I had once lived.
So I started over.
Nearly a year later, my memories returned, bringing me back to New York and straight into Roman Ashford’s path
The husband I once loved.
The man I once left.
Roman says he’s changed. He regrets the man he was and wants another chance with me. But wanting me back is easy. Proving that he deserves me is another matter.
Because I know what it feels like to be lonely beside the man I love. And I refuse to lose myself for Roman a second time.
But as Roman fights to earn his way back into my heart, fragments of my forgotten past begin resurfacing.
And what they reveal is far more terrifying than anything I could have imagined.
The accident that changed my life may never have been an accident at all.
Some memories are better left forgotten.
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Chapter: The decisionVALERIE“That’s a silly idea, don’t you think?”I said it with a spring roll halfway to my mouth, which probably undercut the point. Zoey, across the table, put down her chopsticks and looked at me like I’d just read her a recipe in another language.“Back up,” she said. “Iris Belmont walked into your café. The Iris Belmont. And offered you a job.”“A competition. For a job.”“Who walked in and ordered a lemon tart”“Two lemon tarts. And a cortado, and a croissant. She tipped a hundred dollars into the jar, one bill at a time, while looking me in the face.”We were in a tiny Vietnamese place a few blocks from the café. I had waited until the menus were gone and the first glass of wine had taken the edge off before I told her about Iris.“Okay, that’s villain behavior.” Zoey picked her chopsticks back up and pointed them at me. “I’m sorry, I need to process this properly. Start from the beginning and do not skip a single word.”So I told her. The apology and then the offer, the Founder
Last Updated: 2026-11-06
Chapter: The offerVALERIE “And I’d like you to come to our Founders’ Tasting.” Iris slid a hand into her bag. “It’s in two weeks, at the townhouse, before the doors open. We’re inviting eight bakeries. Some are very well known. Two have stars on the wall, if you care about that. Each one presents a tasting menu to a small panel of members and investors, and the winner becomes Belmont House’s official pastry partner, with a three-year contract.”I tried not to let my face do anything.Three years. A kitchen. A partner with real money and a name that opened doors in rooms I would never otherwise enter. After the Mercer Street increase, I’d run the numbers on my own business so many times I could do them in my sleep, and I knew exactly what a contract like that meant. It meant the café could breathe. It meant I could hire help, and not count the days until the lease reset. I’d spent months waiting for a stroke of luck, and here it was, sitting across from me in a camel coat.“Why me?” I asked. “You said
Last Updated: 2026-11-04
Chapter: The unexpected customerVALERIEIt had been two days since the carrier call, and I had gotten very good at flinching at my own email.Every time my phone buzzed on the counter, my stomach dropped before my brain caught up. A coupon from the flour supplier. A newsletter from a store I’d bought one scarf from. A text from Mrs. Bennett asking if I’d seen the new flyers. None of them was the secure link, and each one left me a little more tired than the last.Things with Miles were strained. Not fighting. Fighting would have been easier, because fighting at least gives you something to point at. He called every morning before his first meeting and every night when he finally got out, and he asked about the café and Gerald and whether I was eating, and he was, as always, the perfect boyfriend. That was the part I couldn’t stand. He was being so good, and I was being so careful.I’d always thought the hard part of keeping something from someone would be the lie itself. It turned out to be the pauses. The half-seco
Last Updated: 2026-11-04
Chapter: Lies,lies,more liesVALERIEThere was a short pause on the line.“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” she said, and I could tell she meant it. “Okay. Let’s get you the best answer we can. Once I have the documents I’ll submit it to the records department. It can take up to ten business days. You’ll get a secure link by email, and the link expires after forty-eight hours, so make sure you open it when it comes through.”“Ten business days.”“I know. I’m sorry. I wish I could make it faster. They’re archived in a different system, and a person has to pull them by hand.”“No, that’s fine. Thank you. Really.”She read me a confirmation number, twice, and I typed it on my phone. I wrote it on the back of my hand with the pen I kept in my coat pocket. Then I thanked her again. The call ended, and the street went on being a street.Ten business days. Two weeks, if you counted weekends.I let myself in and turned the sign around.I had left a hand-lettered card on my cafe door that morning.“Opening late today, back by 11”
Last Updated: 2026-11-03
Chapter: Handling it myselfVALERIEI was almost to the corner before I noticed I still had my coat on.I’d worn it the whole time. Through Roman’s elevator, through twenty minutes in a room that was always kept a few degrees too warm, and I’d sat there like someone waiting to be told she could leave. When I finally flagged down a cab and slid into the back seat, the lining was damp against my spine. I pulled at the collar and gave the driver the café’s address, and then I sat very still and let the last half hour catch up with me.I had told Roman.Not Zoey, Not MilesBut RomanThe order of that bothered me more the longer the cab moved through traffic. Zoey was the person I called when the floor tilted. Miles was the person I was supposed to be building forward with. Roman was the closed chapter I kept reopening by accident. And still, when the question had turned sharp enough to cut, I had walked into his building and put the night in his hands.Maybe because he had already been in the aftermath. Maybe becaus
Last Updated: 2026-11-03
Chapter: Working togetherROMANI was halfway through a vendor contract when Daniel knocked and put his head around the door.“You have a guest.”“There’s nothing on the calendar until eleven.”“She doesn’t have an appointment.” Daniel’s face was doing the careful, empty thing it did when he knew exactly how I’d react and had decided to be professional about it. “It’s Ms. Laurent.”I set the pen down. Slowly, because for a second I didn’t trust my hand to do it any other way.It had been days since her doorway. Days of not calling, which I’d managed through a combination of work, scotch, and the memory of her saying “get out” in a voice that left no room for interpretation. I had stopped expecting her to come through any door of mine.“Send her in.”She came in,bag on her shoulder, and stopped just inside like she’d drawn a line on the carpet. Dark jeans, gray coat she hadn’t bothered to take off. No makeup to speak of. Her hair was pinned up in a knot that was losing its argument with gravity.“Valerie.”“Rom
Last Updated: 2026-11-02
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