"WHAT are you doing here?" I almost jumped on my feet when I saw Charlie outside of my hospital room. Today is my last day here in the hospital. The doctor already gave me a green light to go home. All my injuries were already healed. I only had a few scars and bruises left on me. He cleared his throat. "I'll take you home, Bianca." I tried to hide my surprise. I looked away. "There's no need, Charlie." I didn't want to talk to him. The last time we saw each other, he wanted to get the truth out of me. Charlie… he's a trigger to my emotions. "Mom asked me to take you home, Bianca." Amelia… Of course, she was clueless about everything. She didn't know… I was Charlie's ex-fiancée. "Tell Amelia I can do it alone." "You're avoiding me," he declared. I faced him. "Well, yes. I am. Because we had a past, Charlie. And I've hurt you! Wouldn't that be enough reason to avoid you?" I bit my lower lip. I needed to stop here. I was afraid that my emotions would betray me. "But we

"WHAT happened, Bianca?" Charlie probed. His eyes were bloodshot. This was the first time I saw him like this. "How did you end up with him? You said you met him in a bar. And s-something happened between you two." His fist clenched in anger. His chinky eyes got sharper like a knife. "Did Gideon seduce you? Did he put something on your drink? Did he force himself on you? Tell me what he did!" I almost jumped on my seat with the anger I heard in his voice. I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my throat. "N-no. We didn't meet in a bar. That part was a lie." I shut my eyes for a second. "I met Gideon because of Dad. He used my father to get through to me." "What did he do?" "I didn't know that Dad's gambling addiction resurfaced, Charlie. After I drove you to the airport that day, I visited Dad home. I found out that Dad owed someone two million dollars. That someone is Gideon Henry. Gideon threatened to put Dad in jail if he didn't pay him back within a month." I couldn't

I HAVEN'T seen Charlie much in the past months. After I told him that I'd stay married to Gideon, he seemed to have avoided me. I heard from Amelia that he had taken on a project in Alaska. "I need to talk to you." He looked at me. I was already dressed for my flight. "I have a flight in two hours, Charlie." "I know. I won't take long, Bianca." I bit my lower lip as I invited him inside the house. "Mom said you're going back to New York," he said as he sat on the sofa. His eyes went to my luggage near the sofa. "You already talked to her." It was a statement. I took the seat across from him. "Yeah. I already told Amelia that Gideon and I didn't really love each other. And that I'll be filing a divorce once Gideon wakes up." "You didn't tell her about us," Charlie said, his eyes on me. "No." I swallowed. "Amelia didn't need to know the real reason why Gideon married me. I can't hurt her." I gave him a small smile. "Let's just keep that to ourselves, Charlie. You, Gideon,

"I COULDN'T believe he lost his memories."Charlie muttered beside me. We were both sitting on the wooden bench outside the hospital. It had been a day since Gideon woke up. "You saw it, Charlie.""Yeah."I slightly turned to him. There was a half-sardonic half-amused smile on his face. "That was the first time he talked to me like that after a decade."Just like Charlie, I was too stunned when I witnessed Gideon's reaction to seeing Charlie yesterday. Gideon freaking smiled at his brother! He even asked Charlie for a hug. Can you believe that? "What are your plans now?" Charlie asked me. I stared at the full-blown Jacaranda trees in front of us. It was spring. The purple leaves of the trees were already in full bloom. "Now that Gideon's finally awake, I won't be able to go back to New York just yet.""You're going to file for a divorce?" I swallowed. "No. I can't do that right now.""What?" Charlie turned to me, his forehead in a deep furrow. "Gideon's not in his right state

"WHY are you so far away from me?" I was about to turn off the lamp beside me when I heard Gideon. I snapped my head at him. He was sitting on the right side of the bed, his back was resting on the headboard. I was here on the opposite side. It was our first night here in his house after moving out of the hospital. We were still alone in the house. Tomorrow, we will be joined by the physical therapy nurse that Amelia hired for Gideon. Gideon cleared his throat as his eyes remained on me. "Haven't we slept in the same bed before?" I wanted to laugh as I remembered everything he said in the mausoleum. "We do. Sometimes. You were always out of town, Gideon."It was true. He was always away for business. And I preferred it that way. During the four months we were together, we only had sex five times. He was always in bad mood every time he demanded sex from me. The last time we had sex, he was mad about losing an important business deal.We'd shared the same bed but we never once