Chapter 1

Claudia Yates had just finished ordering my suspension when Isaac Spencer stepped forward to defend me.

“Claudia, the doctor said Jayden temporarily lost the last seven years of his memory because of the surgery. What he did just now was just a moment of impulse. Please don’t be angry.”

Isaac and I, Jayden Clement, had been friends since childhood. I once saved his life when we were kids. Ours was the kind of friendship forged through life and death.

After I woke up and realized I had lost my memory, he was also the one who helped me leave the hospital and brought me straight to the company.

But what he didn’t know was that my decision to divorce wasn’t impulsive at all.

When I first woke up, I noticed I looked older than I remembered, and the timeline didn’t add up.

I consulted the doctor and learned that, as a side effect of having my brainstem tissue removed, I’d lost about seven years of memories, and my mind was stuck in the year I had graduated from university.

The doctor contacted my family on my behalf.

I had to admit, when I saw that my wife was Claudia, the legendary campus belle everyone knew back in school, I felt quite lucky to have married the woman everyone admired.

However, in less than a single morning it took to process my discharge, that illusion was shattered as I could already tell Claudia didn’t love me.

She didn’t know I was allergic to peaches, and the clothes and shoes she brought me were all the wrong sizes. Even when filling out my discharge papers, she didn’t know my birthdate.

Before the doctor could tell her about my amnesia, she hurriedly signed the forms, tossed me the company address, and then ran off to another ward to take care of another man.

I had no idea who that man was, but the difference in the way Claudia treated him compared to me was impossible to miss.

It wasn’t until just now that my friend told me his name, Gerald Lowe.

He was Claudia’s ex-boyfriend and her former assistant.

Whatever happened during those missing seven years must have been unpleasant. If I had forgotten them, then so be it.

Either way, this marriage was falling apart.

Before I could speak, Claudia’s voice cut through the room, cold as ice.

“Do you take me for a fool?

“You thought you’d play hard to get, and now that I’ve caught one, you’re trying to feign amnesia to win my sympathy, is that it?”

Behind her, Gerald was clearly struggling to suppress a smug grin, yet he forced his expression into one of surprise and concern.

“Coco, Jayden seems off today. It doesn’t look like he’s faking it.

“What if he really did lose his memory? Should we take him to the hospital for another check?

“After all, you’ve spent all these years praying for me in the abbey, while Jayden stayed home alone every day. That must have been hard on him.

“Besides, the brainstem tissue was donated to me by Jayden. If something were to happen to him, I’d be too ashamed to face anyone.”

Watching Gerald’s over-the-top performance, I nearly threw up my breakfast.

I had assumed he must have something extraordinary about him to make my wife obsess over him for so long.

It turned out that he was just a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a pretentious, manipulative guy.

Honestly, Claudia’s taste was truly terrible. She couldn’t even see through such a shoddy performance. I had no idea how she ever became the president of a company.

Sensing my gaze, Claudia shot me a disdainful look before turning to comfort Gerald.