All Chapters of I Forgot the Man Who Broke Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"We're already at the door. Just go in, sit for ten minutes, hand out the invitations, and we'll leave."My best friend, Chloe Harper, grabbed my wrist and pushed open the door to the reserved dining room.The noise inside died the instant the door swung open.More than a dozen pairs of eyes landed on me at once.I hadn't wanted to come.This college reunion meant nothing to me, because I had no memories of college at all.A car accident six months ago had wiped out four entire years.But Chloe had insisted on dragging me here. She said some things had to be delivered in person before they could truly be put to rest.Chloe pulled me toward the table. I had just reached into my bag for the invitations.Then a man seated beside the head of the table rose.He wore a tailored black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms. His long-fingered hands rested against the table.He was strikingly handsome, but right now, his eyes were faintly rimmed with red.The way he stared at me made my

Chapter 2

"You're telling us you forgot waking up at six every morning to bring him breakfast?"The girl stood up, her eyes full of mockery."It was freezing, and you wouldn't even wear gloves. You stood in line at the little cafe by the south entrance every morning to buy his favorite cinnamon oatmeal.""Derek mentioned once that the library was full, and after that you started showing up at five in the morning, shivering outside the doors just to save him a seat."Her words were like a switch, opening the floodgates for everyone else in the room."And junior year," another guy added, "Derek had a stomachache. You had a 102-degree fever, but you still stayed up all night to write his three-thousand-word term paper.""The craziest one was his birthday.""It was pouring rain. Every cab in the city had stopped running, and you ran two miles through the storm just to deliver some limited edition collectible.""By the time you got to the dorm, you were soaked head to toe. Looked like a drowned rat."

Chapter 3

"Selene?" I repeated the name, which meant nothing to me.Derek frowned, as if my refusal to let the matter go were somehow unreasonable."Her parents had just died in a car accident. The trauma left her barely able to remember who she was."He looked at me, his tone matter-of-fact."She's Dr. Dawson's only daughter. I couldn't just leave her out on the street.""I brought her into our home because it was easier to look after her there."I listened to his justification in silence.Then, somewhere deep in my mind, a sharp pain seared through.Fragments of images came flooding in.I saw myself in a living room dressed for a wedding with white flowers and gold streamers.A girl in a white nightgown was clinging to Derek's arm, peering at me timidly."Derek, who is she?" the girl asked, her voice barely above a whisper.I watched as the Derek in my vision hesitated for a long time.Then he pulled the girl behind him, shielding her."She's my sister."The image cut off. A wave of nausea hit

Chapter 4

The guy sitting next to Derek was the first to react.He craned his neck and read the date on the invitation."The eighth? Next month?" He sucked in a breath. "That's... isn't that the date you and Derek originally set?"Derek's gaze finally fell to the invitation.He stared at the names embossed in gold on the cover.Bride: Ava Langley.Groom: Nathan Sterling."Nathan Sterling," Derek read under his breath, then gave a short, hollow laugh.He looked up, his eyes full of disbelief and derision."Ava, you had a fake invitation printed just to get back at me?"He tapped his knuckles against the cover, utterly certain of himself."You threw every gift Nathan ever gave you in the trash, right in front of the whole class.""You told him to his face never to bother you again.""You really think he'd marry someone who cut him off for another man?"The more he spoke, the more certain he became that he had exposed my pathetic little scheme."Even if he were willing, you wouldn't marry him.""No

Chapter 5

Derek's hand froze in midair.His gaze dropped to Nathan's arm around my waist. Shock flashed across his face."Nathan Sterling," Derek ground out through clenched teeth.Nathan didn't look at him. Instead, he lowered his head and gently tucked a strand of loose hair behind my ear."Didn't you say you'd only stay ten minutes?" His voice was low and openly affectionate."It started raining outside. I was worried you'd be cold, so I brought your coat up."He draped the coat folded over his arm across my shoulders.In that instant, every last bit of tension drained out of me.I leaned into him instinctively, breathing in the familiar scent of cedarwood, and gave a small nod."I've handed out the invitations. Let's go home."Derek watched the easy intimacy between us, and every drop of color left his face.He could lie to himself about the invitation being fake.But he couldn't deny the complete, unguarded trust in my eyes whenever I looked at Nathan.That look had once belonged to him alo

Chapter 6

Back home, I shut myself in the study.Nathan didn't ask why. He warmed some milk, left the mug on the desk, and quietly closed the door behind him.In the bottom drawer of the desk sat a locked metal box.Chloe had packed it up from my old apartment after I left the hospital.She told me it held "half my former life."I tried my own birthday. The lock didn't open.I tried Nathan's birthday. Still nothing.Then I noticed the corner of an old clinic report caught in the seam of the box. It was dated the day before the accident, when the old Ava had been diagnosed with severe depression and decided to leave for good.I entered those numbers.The lock clicked open.With the open box before me, the choice of code suddenly made sense.Before she ever walked out that door, the old Ava had already changed every password that had anything to do with Derek. The day she decided to save herself was the day she broke with her past.The box was stuffed with journals, a thick stack of ticket stubs,

Chapter 7

The next morning, I had barely reached the lobby of my office building when I spotted Derek.He wore a wrinkled coat, and his eyes were bloodshot. He clearly hadn't slept.He carried an insulated takeout bag. The moment he saw me, he hurried over."Ava." His voice was hoarse.I stopped and regarded him coldly.He held out the bag, forcing what he must have thought was a gentle smile."Cinnamon oatmeal from the little cafe by the south entrance. I waited in line for two hours to get it.""It used to be your favorite. Eat it while it's hot."I looked at the takeout bag and found it bitterly ironic.The old Ava had once stood in bitter cold until her hands were raw and chapped, all to buy him that oatmeal.Now he had waited two hours and thought that was enough to make up for all those long, brutal winters."I don't eat oatmeal," I said without taking the bag. My voice stayed flat.Derek froze. "That's impossible. You had it every morning.""It was your favorite," I cut in. "I never liked

Chapter 8

I hadn't expected Selene to come looking for me.During my lunch break, I ran into her at a cafe near the office.She wore a white dress, her face pale, the picture of fragile innocence."Ava." She walked up to my table, her eyes rimmed red."I heard Derek went to see you."She bit her lower lip, looking every bit the wounded victim."Could you talk to him? Tell him not to kick me out? I have no family left in this city."I stirred my coffee without looking up."You've got the wrong person. Whether he kicks you out has nothing to do with me."Selene's composure cracked, tears welling in her eyes."How can it have nothing to do with you? If you hadn't provoked him by getting married, he never would have tried to throw me out.""Ava, my parents had just died. I really did lose my memory from the trauma. I wasn't trying to take your place.""Derek told me you were his sister, and I believed him."Just then, the cafe door burst open and Derek stormed in, livid.He seized Selene's wrist wit

Chapter 9

Soft music played inside the car.Nathan handed me the hot cocoa, then reached over and buckled my seat belt for me."Back at the cafe, nobody gave you a hard time, did they?" he asked, starting the engine.I shook my head. "They were just loud."Nathan chuckled softly. "Good."As we merged into traffic, I studied his profile behind the wheel and drifted back to the day I first woke up in the hospital.My head had been completely empty.Chloe was sitting beside the bed, crying her eyes out, while Nathan stood by the window.He didn't come close. He didn't rush to tell me who he was.He simply watched me, his eyes full of emotion he was struggling to contain.I learned later that he had taken the first overnight flight back from overseas the moment he heard about my accident.In those first months, he never once mentioned Derek.He simply stayed by my side through rehab, helping me get to know the world again.Then one day, I saw a photo of Derek and Selene on Chloe's phone.I asked Nat

Chapter 10

Nathan and I held our wedding at a private island resort.We invited only close family and friends, none of the college classmates from the reunion.The sea breeze was gentle. Sunlight filtered through the white canopy and dappled the lawn.With my arm linked through my father's, I walked down the aisle toward Nathan waiting at the other end.He wore a white suit. The corners of his eyes glistened. He watched me with something close to reverence.The officiant was just about to begin the ring exchange.Then a commotion erupted beyond the ceremony space.Derek had somehow managed to get a boat to the island.Hotel security caught him at a rope line on the beach before he could reach the ceremony.He had lost a lot of weight. His eyes were sunken, his jaw rough with stubble.The shirt that had once always been crisply pressed was now a wrinkled mess.He couldn't get in. All he could do was scream desperately toward us from hundreds of feet away, past the aisle and the flower walls."Ava!

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