All Chapters of The Accident Was No Mistake: My CEO Husband Wants Me Back : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

VALERIEAll my life I had been good at making myself small enough to fit into other people’s lives.I learned it early. After my father died. After my mother stopped being able to get out of bed most days. I learned how to take up less space, ask for less, expect less. It became the only way I knew how to survive. So when Roman Ashford looked at me in college like I was worth something, I held on to that feeling with both hands and never asked for more than he was willing to give.Three years of marriage later, I was still doing the same thing.I stood in front of the mirror in our bedroom, robe tied loosely around my waist, when he came up behind me. His reflection appeared over my shoulder before I felt his hands. He didn’t say anything at first. Just reached around and settled the necklace against my collarbone. The chain was cool and light. His fingers brushed the back of my neck as he fastened the clasp, careful and precise, the way he handled everything that belonged to him.“Ha

VALERIEA week had passed since the accident, and no one knew who I was.Not even me.I woke up to the same soft beeping and the same white ceiling. The nurses had stopped asking me for a name after the first couple of days. There had been nothing on me when they brought me in. My bag was destroyed in the crash. Phone, ID, everything…unreadable. They had no name, no address, no emergency contacts. Just a woman in her mid-twenties with two different colored eyes and no memory of how she got here.They called me Jane for a while. I hated it, but I didn’t have anything better to give them.Every morning I asked the same question.“Has anyone come looking for me?”And every morning the answer was the same.No.This morning the older nurse came in and checked the monitors like usual. She gave me a small smile that didn’t quite hide how worried she still looked.“Miles is here,” she said. “He’s been waiting downstairs for a bit. Would you like to see him?”I nodded.Miles had become the on

VALERIEShe hadn’t noticed me yet.I stood just inside the doorway, one hand still on the frame, and looked at her.My mother sat by the window in a pale blue cardigan that looked too big on her now. Her hair was thinner than I remembered, pulled back loosely. She was staring out at the small garden like she was waiting for something, or someone. The afternoon light caught the side of her face and made her look older than she should have.A whole year.I had been gone a whole year and she had been right here the entire time.My throat tightened. I didn’t move. I just watched her for a few more seconds, afraid that if I spoke too soon the moment would break and she might not know who I was.Then she turned her head slightly, still not looking at the door, and I saw the familiar line of her profile.I took a quiet breath and stepped further into the room.She turned her head.For a second her eyes just rested on me without changing. Then recognition flickered across her face.

ROMANVincent went still.“Valerie?” He asked,shockingly as shocked as I was too.“Yeah,I replied.”“I thought she travelled,” Vincent said. His eyebrows pulled together as he stared at me. “You told me she disappeared. You told me she wanted you to leave her alone. And now she’s just… back?”“Yeah.”The word came out quieter than I intended.Valerie disappeared a year ago. She had simply left.And she had done it without giving me the slightest indication that she was planning to.It had been our anniversary.I had spent most of that day at a meeting in Stamford. What was supposed to be a few hours had stretched into nearly the entire afternoon after one of the partners decided to reopen negotiations over a deal we had already agreed on twice. By the time I finally left, traffic had turned the drive back into Manhattan into another two hours of wasted time.I got home really late to a dark apartment and divorce papers sitting on our bed like she’d left them there for me to find on my

CHAPTER NINE VALERIE“Three times the rent?”Mrs. Bennett stared at me across the little table we had pushed together in the corner of my café, her reading glasses halfway down her nose.I nodded. “Three times.”“That’s not a rent increase,” she muttered. “That’s an eviction notice dressed up in a suit.”The repair shop owner, Mr. Calloway, let out a dry laugh from beside her.“They know exactly what they’re doing.”“The letter says existing tenants will have twelve months before the new rate takes effect,” the boutique owner, Elena, pointed out.“Twelve months isn’t exactly generous,” Mrs. Bennett replied. “Especially when they expect us to survive the renovation first.”I sat back in my chair and folded my arms.It had been two days since the notice was served, and I’d spent most of those two days doing math I didn’t want to do… rent times three, minus whatever margin I had left after flour and milk and the electric bill that had somehow doubled since the ovens started r