Chapter 1

"Don't touch me." He shook off my hand, his eyes cold as ice. "Just thinking about sharing a bed with a calculating woman like you for three whole years makes my skin crawl."

Three days ago, he drove through a torrential storm just to buy me my favorite lavender-lemon cake, and ended up in a horrific car crash.

Now, his memory had rolled back to three years ago, right when we first got married and he absolutely despised me.

Holding his first love close, he crushed the wooden hairpin I had personally carved for him under his heel. "Trash belongs in the trash can."

Today was my birthday. It was also our wedding anniversary.

Outside the window, he was setting off a massive display of fireworks across the Manhattan skyline for that other woman.

Over the phone, his cold, detached voice came through. "Vivian? She's nothing but a cheap substitute."

I slid the simple wedding band off my ring finger and signed the divorce papers.

Christian Blackwood, I am finally letting you go.

Vivian's POV

The smell of disinfectant in the ICU was sharp and suffocating.

I stood outside the glass wall, staring blankly at the man hooked up to the ventilator.

Christian Blackwood.

My husband. The ruthless CEO of Blackwood Enterprises.

Three days ago, just to get me a cake from that boutique bakery downtown, his car collided with an out-of-control truck in the middle of a heavy storm.

The doctor said he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. Whether he would ever wake up was entirely up to fate.

For three days and three nights, I hadn't left his side. My tears had long run dry.

The heart monitor suddenly spiked. The man on the bed slightly twitched his fingers.

My heart leaped into my throat. I rushed into the room like a madwoman.

"Christian! Are you awake? Christian!"

I grabbed his trembling hand, my tears spilling over again, splashing onto his pale skin.

Slowly, those deep, dark eyes opened. After a fleeting moment of confusion, his gaze locked onto my face.

There was no warmth. No relief of surviving a near-death experience.

Only bone-chilling coldness and pure, unfiltered disgust.

He yanked his hand back as if he had touched something toxic.

"Don't touch me."

His voice was hoarse, but it cut through me like shards of glass.

I froze, staring at him in disbelief.

"Christian... what's wrong? It's me, Vivian..."

"Vivian?" Christian let out a mocking laugh, his eyes dripping with contempt. "What kind of game are you playing now? My grandfather already forced me to marry you. What more do you want?"

It felt like a lightning strike. My mind went completely blank.

Grandpa forced him to marry me?

That was three years ago!

Three years ago, Arthur Blackwood used his failing health to force Christian to marry an ordinary, self-made UN simultaneous interpreter. Me.

Back then, Christian's heart belonged entirely to his high-school sweetheart, Tiffany Sterling.

He hated me to the bone, believing I was a gold-digger who used his grandfather to climb into his bed.

But over the last three years, I was the one who stood by him through the brutal board battles at Blackwood Enterprises. I spent three years chipping away at his icy heart.

Just two weeks ago, he had pinned me against the floor-to-ceiling window of our penthouse, whispering against my ear, "Vivian, once this merger is done, I'm giving you the grandest wedding. I want the whole world to know you are my wife."

But now, he was looking at me like I was his worst enemy.

The doctors rushed in to run tests. Afterward, the chief neurologist called me out into the hallway.

"Mrs. Blackwood, your husband suffered retrograde amnesia from the impact. His memory has reset to three years ago, right around the time of your wedding."

The doctor's words were a blunt knife sawing at my heart.

"Will he... will he ever remember?" my voice shook.

"It's hard to say. He could remember tomorrow, or... he might never remember for the rest of his life."

I don't even remember how I walked back into the room.

By then, Christian's mother, Eleanor, had arrived. She had always despised me. Now, she was holding Christian's hand, wiping away tears.

"Oh, Christian, you scared me to death! Don't worry, sweetie. I'll make sure that leech pack her bags and get out of our lives immediately!"

Christian leaned against the pillows. Even pale and in a hospital gown, he still possessed the intimidating aura of a billionaire mogul.

He looked up, his cold eyes sweeping over me as I stood at the doorway.

"Now that I'm awake, this joke of a marriage ends," he said, his tone casual but incredibly cruel.

"My lawyers will draw up the divorce papers. Vivian, take the cash settlement and get out of my sight. I'm going to find Tiffany."

I dug my nails deep into my palms, swallowing the metallic taste of blood in my throat.

"Christian, these past three years, we..."

"Shut up!" Christian snapped, his eyes flashing with irritation. "Don't bring up these three years. Just thinking about the fact that I was forced to share a bed with a calculating woman like you for three whole years makes my skin crawl."

My heart shattered into a million pieces.

I looked at the man I had loved with every fiber of my being, and he felt like a total stranger.

The Christian who used to warm my cold feet under the covers, who would massage my shoulders after a grueling day of interpreting, who drove through a storm just because I casually mentioned a cake... that Christian was dead.

He died in that car crash.

I took a deep breath, forcing my tears back.

"Fine," my voice was quiet, but steady. "I agree to the divorce."