LOGINLydia POV “Hmm?” “You owe me two trips.” I stared at him. “What?” “Two.” “Two what?” “Two vacations.” I laughed. “Already?” “Yes.” “Your mother just got her memory back.” “Exactly.” “And this is what you’re negotiating?” “Yes.” I shook my head. “Unbelievable.” He grinned. “I already have two locations.” “Of course you do.” “I’ve been thinking.” “Apparently.” He started explaining his vacation plans with the seriousness of someone presenting a business proposal. Ava waited until he finished. Then she looked at me. “Mom.” “What?” “I have a question.” “Go ahead.” “When I’m ten, can I go to the space?” I stared at her. “Oh my God.” “What?” “You two are really doing this right now?” They both laughed. “So?” I sighed dramatically. “Okay.” “Yes?” “We’ll see how it goes.” They looked at each other. Then Eli nodded. “Okay, Mom.” Ava nodded too. “We can see how it goes.” I laughed. “Exactly.” And just like that, we moved on. Like we hadn’t spent t
Lydia POV Honestly. I didn’t even get the chance to explain anything. One second I was standing there, looking at everybody’s faces, and the next thing I knew, the room started spinning. Like, literally spinning. “Wait…” I grabbed the side of the door. “Why am I feeling dizzy?” Anna immediately looked at me. “Lydia?” “I’m fine.” I was absolutely not fine. My vision blurred for a second. Then everything went black. I fainted. And apparently, that was enough to send everybody into another round of panic. I vaguely heard someone calling my name before I completely lost consciousness. When I came around again, I was being carried. I opened my eyes slightly. Dave. And Theo. Both of them were carrying me toward my room. And honestly, if I had been fully conscious, I probably would have found the whole thing ridiculously funny. Because these two men had probably spent the last week silently competing over who cared about me more, and now they were literally carrying m
Anna POV I was still staring at her. Like, genuinely staring. Because I needed to be sure. I needed to know that I wasn’t imagining things. “Lydia…” She looked at me. “What?” “Oh my God.” “What?” “Are you for real?” She frowned. “What kind of question is that?” “Are you actually back?” She blinked. “What?” “Like, are you back back?” She stared at me for a few seconds. Then she rolled her eyes. “Girl, shut up.” I froze. My mouth literally dropped open. “Wait.” She shook her head, laughing. “I got my memory back.” I screamed. “Oh my God!” I practically threw myself at her. “LYDIA!” “Careful!” “I’m sorry!” I pulled back immediately, staring at her face. “You got your memory back?” “Yes!” “All of it?” “Most of it.” “Most?” “Anna, please.” I started crying. I didn’t even realize I was crying until I felt the tears running down my face. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” She laughed. “You’re crying?” “Do you know what you just did to me?!” “You w
Anna POVSo we got into the car.And before anybody says anything, yes, we put on our seatbelts.I may be insane, but I’m not completely insane.There are levels.The kids didn’t know what we were actually doing either. We had simply told them we were going for a stroll, which, in hindsight, was probably the most suspiciously vague explanation I could have given them.But they didn’t question it.They had gone upstairs, and apparently Dave was in his room having a meeting with some clients.Which, honestly, was very on brand for him.These are the cons of being surrounded by all these business-driven, super-duper, ridiculously busy men. There was always a meeting. Always a call. Always a proposal. Always some acquisition, client, document, contract, whatever.Like, sir.Your ex wife forgot ten years of her life.Could you perhaps close the laptop for five minutes?But that was that.Of course, I wasn’t going to complain too much because, in a way, his meeting meant he wasn’t around to
Anna POV So. Let me tell you guys about my plan. And before anybody starts judging me, please, I already know. I know. I can hear my mother in my head right now. “Anna, sometimes I wonder where you got your sense from.” Honestly, same. Because even while I was thinking about this plan, there was a small, very reasonable part of my brain going, Girl, this is actually insane. And the other part of my brain was like, But what if it works? And unfortunately, the second part was louder. So here we were. I had decided that I was going to recreate the circumstances surrounding Lydia’s accident. Not exactly. Okay, maybe almost exactly. But safely. At least, that was what I kept telling myself. The accident had happened in the evening. Lydia had been in a car, there had been an impact, she’d sustained a serious head injury, and somehow her brain had decided that the best response to all of that was to take approximately ten years of her memories and hide them somewhere. So I
Anna povI didn’t know enough about Lydia and Dave’s history to sit there and make some grand declaration about who deserved whom.Their relationship was complicated.Very complicated.There were years between them that I didn’t fully understand, and right now Lydia couldn’t even remember them herself.But Theo?I knew Theo.And I knew the way he looked at Lydia.So yes.I was rooting for my brother.But that wasn’t even the part that bothered me.What bothered me was that I didn’t want Theo getting himself trapped in this weird emotional limbo where he was constantly hovering around a woman who didn’t remember him, hoping that one day she would suddenly wake up and remember exactly what he meant to her.Because what if she didn’t?What if the memories took months?What if they took years?What if some of them never came back?What was Theo supposed to do then?Keep waiting?Keep showing up every two days?Keep pretending that he was completely fine with not knowing whether the woman
Lydia I turned.He was standing a few feet away now, hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable.There was no softness in his face.Just cool detachment.The kind that made the evening breeze feel warmer by comparison.For the first time since he arrived, he looked directly at me and held the
Lydia POVAfter what seems like forever, a black Rolls-Royce pulled into the court compound, I had already imagined three different ways to murder my husband.Future husband.Potential husband.Missing husband.Whatever.At that point, I wasn’t being picky.The sleek black car glided through the ga
Lydia POVOh.That was… unfortunate.Because he was beautiful.In a sharp, expensive, dangerous kind of way.Dark suit.Sharper jaw.Dark eyes that looked almost black under certain lighting.Everything about him looked controlled.I clicked another picture.Still no smile.Another.Same expression
Lydia POV“You’re getting married to Dave Ashton tomorrow by eight a.m.”Those were the words that ended my life as I knew it.One sentence.One Tuesday evening.One announcement delivered with the same emotional weight my father would have used to ask someone to pass the salt.For a moment, I hone







