로그인Claire's POVBy the time we reached the clinic, I had already checked the appointment details three times and not because I had forgotten them but because I was nervous.There was something strange about knowing that a tiny person was growing inside me while having so little memory of the beginning of it. Every time we came for an appointment, I felt as though I was being introduced to my own pregnancy all over again.Damien seemed to sense my uneasiness without me saying anything.He had been unusually quiet during the drive, but not distracted. His attention kept drifting toward me whenever we stopped at a traffic light, and every time I caught him looking, he would give me that small smile he had started giving me lately. The one that made something inside my chest flutter.When we entered the clinic, the receptionist greeted us and checked us in before directing us toward the waiting area. I sat down and Damien sat beside me and for about thirty seconds, we were both quiet and the
Claire's POV"Because I want to understand what we're becoming."Damien remained quiet after I said it. His eyes stayed on mine, and for once there was no immediate answer waiting behind them. I could see him thinking, perhaps trying to understand whether I was asking him to give me another version of our past or whether I was asking for something more complicated.I wasn't entirely sure myself. I only knew that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life treating my own marriage like a story someone else had told me. I wanted to know it and not the polished version and not the version that made Damien look like a perfect husband and me like a perfect wife.I wanted the ugly parts too. The ridiculous arguments, the misunderstandings, the days when we'd been irritated with each other and the nights when one of us had gone to bed angry because if all I remembered were the beautiful moments, I would never know whether what I was feeling now was real or simply nostalgia for a life I had be
Claire's POVI woke the next morning with the sound of rain against the windows and for several seconds, I didn't move. I lay beneath the covers, staring at the ceiling while the previous night's memories moved through my mind in fragments. The song and the dancing and Damien's arms around me. His heartbeat beneath my cheek and the kiss and the words that had come afterward.I think I'm starting to understand why I still might.I turned onto my side and stared at the empty space beside me it wasn't my room that bothered me it was everything I couldn't remember about the room. I knew I had lived in this penthouse and I knew Damien and I had shared a life here and I knew I had loved him but I didn't know how we had gotten from two people entering a contract marriage to two people dancing together in this room.There were pieces everywhere. The problem was that they weren't connected. I remembered stealing his dessert and I remembered calling him my husband and I remembered laughing with
Claire's POV"I called you my husband." The words left my mouth, but for several seconds Damien didn't respond. He was still standing in front of me, his hand resting lightly at my waist, his other hand holding mine. The music continued playing around us, soft and steady, but neither of us seemed to hear it anymore.I could still see it, a different version of this room and a different dress and Damien laughing and me standing in front of him with my arms around his neck and the strange certainty that he belonged to me.My husband.I pressed my fingertips against my temple. "I said it."Damien's voice was barely above a whisper. "You remember saying it?""I remember how it felt."He swallowed. "What did it feel like?"I looked at him. "Normal."Something broke across his expression as I continued before I could lose the thought. "I wasn't thinking about whether I was supposed to love you. I wasn't wondering whether I should call you that. It was just..." I searched for the right word.
Claire's POV The penthouse was unusually quiet that evening not empty. I had learned that Damien's penthouse was never truly empty. There was always the faint hum of the city beyond the windows, the distant movement of traffic several floors below, the quiet sounds of someone moving through another room. But tonight, there was no television playing, no phone conversation drifting from Damien's office, and no Maria in the kitchen making enough noise to remind us that dinner would eventually appear whether we were hungry or not. I was curled into the corner of the living-room sofa with a book resting open in my lap, although I had been staring at the same page for several minutes without absorbing a word. My mind had been doing that lately. Wandering and searching. Sometimes I wondered whether I was helping my memories return or simply thinking about them so much that I was creating memories that had never existed. That frightened me. The last thing I wanted was to give Damien som
Tiffany's POVI remained standing on the pavement long after Damien's car disappeared into the traffic.My phone was still in my hand, and I kept staring at the dark screen as though I could somehow make it light up again if I waited long enough. It didn't. Damien hadn't called back, and deep down I knew he never would.That realization should have made me angry, but what I felt was worse, humiliation.I'd gone into that conversation believing the history between us still gave me some kind of influence over him. I had thought that if I reminded him of the woman he had once planned to marry, the woman he had trusted enough to stand beside him in front of hundreds of people, then some part of him would remember what we had been.Instead, he'd looked straight through it. History doesn't give you the right to interfere with my present.I could still hear his voice saying the words.My jaw tightened as I finally looked away from the road. "Your present," I muttered bitterly.I hated the wa
Claire's POVDamien's words settled over the room with all the force of a collapsing building. "We will need to discuss the divorce arrangements this week."For a moment, I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly. The candles flickered softly between us. The meal I had spent hours preparing filled th
Claire's POVThe receptionist smiled as she handed me a small envelope. "Don't lose that," she said. "Most mothers end up keeping the first ultrasound forever."I looked down at the photograph tucked inside the envelope and felt something tighten in my chest.Forever.It was such a simple word, suc
Claire's POVThe problem with Tiffany Morgan was that she never did anything obvious because if she had openly flirted with Damien, I could have been angry if she had insulted me in front of other people, I could have defended myself and if she had behaved like the villain I wanted her to be, at le
Claire's POVBy noon, I had accomplished almost nothing. On paper, my morning had been productive. I had answered emails, approved schedules, finalized travel arrangements for three executives, and reorganized next week's board meeting agenda.In reality, I couldn't have told anyone what half of th







