Chapter 1

The moment my husband, Martin Gentry, suspended me, Joan Conway jumped in to defend me.

"Martin, the doctor said the surgery temporarily erased Willow's memories of the past seven years. She was just acting on impulse earlier, so please don't be mad at her."

Joan was my cousin and had been my best friend since childhood.

When I woke up with no memory of the past seven years, she was the one who picked me up from the hospital and brought me straight to the office.

What she didn't realize was that asking Martin for a divorce hadn't been an impulsive decision at all.

Ever since I woke up, I'd noticed more lines on my face than I remembered, and the date didn't match the year I remembered.

When I asked the doctor what had happened, he explained that the surgery to remove some of my brainstem tissue had caused a serious side effect.

I'd lost about seven years of memories. In my mind, I'd only just graduated from college.

The doctor offered to call my family. I had to admit, I was thrilled when I found out Martin was my husband. Back in college, he'd been the campus heartthrob, brilliant and admired by practically everyone.

But by the time my discharge paperwork was finished that morning, I already knew he didn't love me.

He didn't know I was allergic to peaches. Every piece of clothing and every pair of shoes he'd brought me was the wrong size. And when he filled out my discharge forms, he couldn't even remember my birthday.

Before the doctor could explain my memory loss to Martin, Martin rushed through the discharge paperwork, gave me the address of his company, and hurried off to another room to see a woman.

I had no idea who she was, but the way he looked at her was softer and more affectionate than he'd ever looked at me.

It wasn't until Joan mentioned her just now that I finally learned her name was Evelyn Stout. She was Martin's ex and had once worked as his assistant.

Whatever had happened during the seven years I couldn't remember, it clearly hadn't been anything good. If those memories were gone, I was perfectly happy to leave them that way.

My marriage was ending anyway.

Before I could say anything, Martin shot me a cold look.

"Do you think I'm an idiot, Willow? I never knew you could be this manipulative. Playing hard to get didn't work, so now you're faking amnesia to get everyone to feel sorry for you?"

Behind him, Evelyn was barely holding back a smug smile, but she quickly replaced it with a look of concern.

"Martin, Willow really does seem off today. I don't think she's faking it. What if she really did lose her memory? Maybe you should take her to the hospital and get her checked out.

"You've spent all these years at the monastery praying for me while Willow was left on her own. She's already suffered enough because of me, and the brainstem tissue I received came from her.

"If something really happened to her because of that, I don't know how I'd live with myself."

Watching Evelyn lay it on that thick almost made me lose my breakfast.

I'd assumed there had to be something special about her if Martin was still hung up on her after all these years.

As it turned out, she was just the type who acted sweet and innocent while carefully calculating every word that came out of her mouth.

Martin really did have terrible taste. If he couldn't see through an act that obvious, I had no idea how he'd ever managed to become a CEO.