Chapter 3

"Selene?" I repeated the name, which meant nothing to me.

Derek frowned, as if my refusal to let the matter go were somehow unreasonable.

"Her parents had just died in a car accident. The trauma left her barely able to remember who she was."

He looked at me, his tone matter-of-fact.

"She's Dr. Dawson's only daughter. I couldn't just leave her out on the street."

"I brought her into our home because it was easier to look after her there."

I listened to his justification in silence.

Then, somewhere deep in my mind, a sharp pain seared through.

Fragments of images came flooding in.

I saw myself in a living room dressed for a wedding with white flowers and gold streamers.

A girl in a white nightgown was clinging to Derek's arm, peering at me timidly.

"Derek, who is she?" the girl asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

I watched as the Derek in my vision hesitated for a long time.

Then he pulled the girl behind him, shielding her.

"She's my sister."

The image cut off. A wave of nausea hit me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, forcing down the churning in my stomach.

"Sister," I repeated softly.

Derek's expression faltered, but he quickly recovered his composure.

"Selene was extremely unstable at the time. The doctor said she couldn't handle any more stress."

He was trying to make me the villain.

"It was temporary. Once she was stable, I was going to tell her the truth."

"Ava, you're usually so kind. Why pick a fight with someone who had just lost both her parents?"

"You ran into a storm because you wanted to force me to throw her out, then got yourself hit by a truck. And now you're using the accident to make me feel guilty."

I opened my eyes and looked at the man in front of me.

He truly believed he had done nothing wrong.

He believed that bringing another woman into the apartment we had decorated for our wedding was an act of charity.

He believed that denying I was his future wife, right in front of another woman, had been a reasonable temporary measure.

He even believed that the car accident that nearly killed me was a stunt I had pulled to scare him.

"Derek," I said, speaking his name for the first time.

He blinked, his eyes lighting up, thinking I was finally going to give in.

"Let's assume everything you just told me about the past is true."

I looked at him, my voice so calm it surprised even me.

"Then losing my memory might not have been an accident at all."

"Maybe it was my brain protecting me, making sure I could finally forget someone as rotten as you."

The color drained from Derek's face.

He shot to his feet, his chair scraping against the floor with a screech.

"Ava, watch what you say!"

His jaw was clenched, fighting to hold on to some shred of composure.

"I've been more than reasonable today. Don't push your luck."

I ignored his anger.

I opened my bag and pulled out the ivory wedding invitation embossed in gold.

The gold lettering gleamed beneath the lights.

I set the invitation on the glass tabletop and tapped one corner with my fingertip.

"Are you done?"

I looked at him, my eyes empty of any emotion.

"If you are, take a look at this."

I gave it a push. The ivory-and-gold invitation slid to a stop in front of Derek.

The room fell deathly silent.

Every eye in the room fixed on the card.