Chapter 1

Kieran's POV

"Kieran, you're home early today. Selene and I just got back from the grocery store. We picked up everything for chicken and wild rice soup. How does that sound? It's your favorite."

Selene Voss followed Evander Thorne inside.

She gave me a polite nod before heading straight into the kitchen.

Ever since Selene lost her memory, I'd been stuck in an absurd situation just so I wouldn't have to leave her.

I, Kieran Ashford, was her boyfriend.

Yet somehow, I'd ended up living in the home she shared with Evander, treated as little more than a guest.

And every day, I had to swallow my jealousy as I watched my girlfriend give another man all the love and attention that should have been mine.

Every time I saw Selene and Evander holding hands or wrapping their arms around each other right in front of me, it tore me apart.

The only thing that kept me going was the same promise I repeated to myself over and over.

Selene would remember. And when she did, she'd remember me. Everything would finally go back to the way it was supposed to be.

I clung to that hope for six agonizing months.

But Selene's memories never came back. Instead, I got the one piece of news I'd been dreading most.

She was falling for Evander.

Evander followed my gaze to where Selene was busy in the kitchen. He leaned closer, lowering his voice so she wouldn't hear. "I'm sorry, Kieran. I really thought she'd have her memory back by now. I wish there were more I could do."

I looked down with a bitter smile.

He didn't know the truth. Selene wasn't struggling to find her way back to the past. She was choosing to leave it behind.

"But don't worry," Evander added. "I've got your back. I'll make sure no other guy gets the chance to move in on her."

"Thanks," I murmured.

The irony was almost unbearable. The only man I had ever needed to worry about was standing right beside me.

"I only came back to grab something. I have to head out again in a minute."

Just then, Selene called for Evander to help her in the kitchen.

He immediately turned to me. "Then you'd better get going. Dinner should be ready by the time you're back."

From the doorway, I watched Evander steal a piece of chicken from the cutting board. Selene caught him and smacked his hand away, but he only laughed and reached for another.

"You're impossible," she said.

"And yet you still put up with me."

Selene smiled and bumped her shoulder against his. "Unfortunately."

Evander grinned, and a second later, they were laughing together again.

The easy teasing. The casual touches. The way they moved around each other as though they'd done this a thousand times before.

Anyone looking through that kitchen doorway would have assumed they were a couple. And for one painful moment, they looked exactly like one to me too.

The scene in front of me was everything I'd once imagined married life with Selene would be.

Cooking dinner together. Teasing each other over nothing. Laughing in the kitchen at the end of the day.

It was exactly the life I'd wanted.

Except someone else had taken my place in it.

Maybe Selene thought I'd already left, because her next question came without warning.

"Kieran's been staying with us for six months now. Hasn't he found his own place yet?"

Evander went still. "Uh... No. Not yet."

He hesitated, clearly scrambling for an explanation. "Rent around here is ridiculous, and he doesn't make that much. Getting his own place would eat up most of his paycheck. Besides, it's a lot easier for him to get to work from here.

"Why? Has he been bothering you?"

Selene was chopping vegetables for dinner, her voice firm. "I think Kieran needs to move out. The three of us living together like this just isn't working. I can't even walk around in a tank top and shorts without remembering there's some guy I barely know in the house.

"And forget about having any privacy with you. I don't want you constantly putting yourself second because of him, either.

"You said we were making honey-glazed pork chops and roasted vegetables tonight because you love them. But the second Kieran walked through the door, you changed the whole plan and decided to make his favorite soup instead.

"This is your home too. So, why are you always the one acting like a guest in it?"

Evander fell silent. For a few seconds, he simply stared at her. Then he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.