Chapter 1

On my wedding day, Adrian Hawthorne blew up the entire hotel just to steal me away.

He was my fiancé's biggest business rival, the heir apparent to the Hawthorne Group, the next man at the top.

He dug me out of the rubble with his bare hands.

Looking at me, memory wiped clean, he clutched me to his chest, his voice shaking as he told me he was my lover.

For five whole years after the wedding, Adrian treated me like a princess.

Then, five years in, he grew tired of me.

He slipped off his wedding band with practiced ease, one hand cradling the swollen belly of the girl his family had taken in.

"Give me the baby. Whatever you want, it's yours."

"Same rules as always. Don't let it reach Selene."

What he didn't know was that his little ward had secretly recorded the whole thing.

She sent it to me like a trophy, saying the title of Mrs. Hawthorne would be hers soon enough.

What he didn't know either was this.

My memory had come back.

Before him, the man I had truly loved was named Julian Rothwell.

As the man who ran the Rothwell empire, he had loved me with a kind of madness.

And now, I had remembered everything.

Adrian was finished.

...

Adrian had hidden his little ward very well.

Unfortunately for him, this girl had far too much nerve and far too much ambition.

Camille Bianchi walked right up to my door, her pregnant belly on full display, and threw down the challenge herself.

"Mrs. Hawthorne, I'm carrying twins. The doctor says they're both boys."

"Adrian feels so sorry for me, carrying his babies. Every night he massages me and stays until I fall asleep before coming home to you."

"He said he can't wait to meet his sons."

I curved my lips into a smile.

"Has Adrian never told you what kind of woman I am?"

Adrian wanted those babies so badly. It would be rude of me not to help him out.

Half an hour later, I had a package rushed to Adrian's office.

I sipped my afternoon tea and watched the security feed from his building on my screen.

He received the package, and for a moment the cold set of his face softened.

Then he opened it, and his expression changed in an instant.

Inside was a termination certificate.

And what had been his and Camille's child.

Three hours earlier, the family's private doctor had taken care of it personally.

By the time Adrian raced home, Camille was lying on a makeshift hospital bed. The second she saw him she was sobbing.

"Adrian, she killed our babies! The babies you'd been waiting for!"

"Kill her for me, kill this bitch!"

Something like pain flickered in Adrian's eyes.

He seized my wrist. His voice was hard, straining to hold back a huge amount of rage.

"Selene, she's just a girl who grew up in this house. Did you have to go this far?"

Five years of marriage, and this was the first time he had ever raised his voice at me.

For another woman, no less.

I tossed my phone in front of him.

The message thread was full of intimate videos between him and Camille.

Along with insults aimed at me and demands that I step aside.

"Your little ward sent these to provoke me. As Mrs. Hawthorne I was hurt. Am I not allowed to hit back?"

Adrian went still.

He shot Camille a cold glance.

Then his eyes softened. He dropped to one knee in front of me and cupped my hand in his.

"Selene, you've got the wrong idea."

"I just didn't want you to go through the pain of pregnancy. I was going to have her deliver the baby and bring it home for you to raise."

"I swear on my father's life. I swear on the Hawthorne name. There has only ever been one woman I love, and that's you."

I believed him.

Back when we had first talked about having children, he had gone and signed up for a labor pain simulation.

That was the first time I ever saw Adrian cry.

He had held me tight, heartbroken.

"Selene, how can giving birth hurt this much?"

"Let's not have kids. I can't stand the thought of you going through that."

And yet.

Because he couldn't stand to see me suffer.

He'd let another woman carry his twins in my place?

I turned my head with a mocking look, and there was Camille, eyes wide with disbelief, rimmed red.

I let out a soft laugh.

"Adrian, you really are ruthless. One sentence, and you've cut us both."

"So, what are you planning to do now?"

"There was a time when someone crossed me, and you didn't hesitate. You tore their whole company to the ground and ran them out of this city."