Chapter 1

It was midnight, and Helen Watkins still hadn't come home.

I picked up my phone and called her.

There was no answer the first time. Or the second. Or the third.

It wasn't until the seventh try that the call finally went through.

Before I could say a word, her impatient voice came down the line, "Are you ever going to give it a rest, Jordan?! God, you're so annoying!"

The deafening beat of music pounded in the background, but it wasn't nearly as grating as the coldness in her words.

I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on the phone. "It's already midnight. Don't forget what you promised me."

My voice was flat, but inside, I couldn't calm down.

Helen and I had already filed our marriage license. All that was left was the wedding.

But right at that critical moment, she fell for someone else and refused, no matter what, to come back home.

I knew I couldn't stop her, so I made her one request.

I asked her for one month. For that month, we would treat each other the way we used to.

If, when the month was up, she still hadn't remembered our past, or still didn't feel the slightest thing for me, I would file for divorce myself.

That's right. Helen had lost her memory.

After we got married, a car accident left her with a head injury. She forgot everything, including her feelings for me.

Then a college student by the name of Tyler Pattison came along.

Helen fell hopelessly for him.

She brought him into high society and bought him a car and a house, showering him with every luxury.

Tyler was frighteningly calculating, too.

Somehow, he'd found my contact information.

He was constantly showing off the time he spent with Helen.

Late at night, when everything was quiet, he would send me long, gushing messages and photos.

Tyler: [Jordan, Helen and I are serious about each other. Please stop clinging to her.]

Tyler: [She doesn't love you at all. Why won't you let her go?!]

Tyler: [Do you really think she can be happy tied to you by some family marriage deal?!]

A family marriage deal?

What Tyler didn't know was that in my marriage to Helen, I had never been the one doing the chasing.

She was the one who pursued me.

Our families had been close friends for generations, and Helen and I had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

If it weren't for that car accident, Helen and I would have gone on living happily ever after.

But life doesn't deal in what-ifs.

When she heard I was willing to divorce her, Helen hesitated again and again. In the end, for the sake of her future with Tyler, she swallowed her disgust for me and reluctantly agreed.

I set two conditions of my own.

First, she had to be home by midnight every night.

Second, for that month, she couldn't be intimate with any other man.

If she couldn't manage that, I would never agree to the divorce.

And now, only a few days had gone by.

"Jordan, get this straight. You might be my husband on paper, but I don't love you at all. What gives you the right to make demands of me?!"

Helen scoffed.

"Don't you know that every time I come home and see your face, it makes me sick?"

She hurled the vilest words at me without a second thought, not caring in the least whether they hurt me.

I clenched my jaw hard, forcing myself not to lose my composure.

A young man's annoyed voice came through the receiver, whiny and pouting, "Helen, if you make one more phone call, I'm really going to get mad! Here, three drinks as punishment. Drink them, and I'll forgive you!"

It was Tyler.

Then, over the phone, Helen laughed in a doting, gentle tone I had never heard from her before. "Okay, okay, I got it, my little jealous one."

The moment she finished, her voice turned icy again. "Anything else? If not, stop bothering me!"

I said coldly, "Helen, don't forget our deal. Either you come home right now, or I come get you. Otherwise, you can forget about ever getting that divorce."

The other end went silent for a full thirty seconds before Helen spat out a vicious curse, "You're so damn pathetic!"