Chapter 1
My boyfriend, Matthew Stone, and I were both undercover in a notorious criminal group. Then, after a freak accident, he lost his memory.
Matthew forgot all about being undercover, forgot about me, and ended up falling for the kingpin's daughter, Evelyn Linwood.
He was helping Evelyn hunt down all the undercover agents in the company, and just when he was about to get exposed himself, I came clean to protect him.
Evelyn ordered her men to torture me. They tore off my fingernails, snapped my legs, and dug out my eyes.
In the end, Matthew—following her orders—ended my life himself.
Three years later, he married Evelyn, got rid of her father, and took over as the new leader of the company.
By all rights, they should've been living happily ever after.
But for some reason, seeing Evelyn—blind, crippled, and shattered inside—I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe Matthew was starting to remember something.
*****
It had been three years since Matthew killed me.
My spirit was bound to him, unable to move on, forced to watch as he and Evelyn, the criminal group's heiress, played the perfect couple. With Evelyn by his side, he climbed his way up from bodyguard to vice president, and finally to CEO.
Matthew and Evelyn plotted together, devouring the family's power and shares piece by piece, until they finally set up Evelyn's father, the chairman, and had him killed.
And just like that, Matthew, the undercover agent who'd lost his memory, had become the new boss of the entire criminal group.
It all seemed so ironic, but something just felt off. More than once, I found myself wondering if maybe Matthew had already started to remember.
But if Matthew had, why didn't he reach out to his contact? Why did he let himself get sucked deeper and deeper into this criminal hellhole?
The higher he climbed, the more blood he had on his hands.
If his cover ever got blown, there was no way he'd get out unscathed.
Watching him run the group with that cold-blooded, cutthroat style, I couldn't see a shred of the righteous guy I once knew. He was a shadowy kingpin now, soaked in sin, pulling all the strings from the shadows.
*****
Tonight glittered with the 30th anniversary gala of the Linwood Group, a sea of celebrities and socialites filling the grand ballroom.
Evelyn made her entrance, breathtaking in a haute couture gown of deep crimson.
Diamonds and sapphires adorned her neck, ears, and fingers—a collection whispered to be worth over 100 million.
On the arm of Matthew, impeccable in his tailored black suit, she moved down the red carpet. A wave of admiring murmurs and camera flashes followed them. Evelyn smiled graciously for the photographers, her expression serene behind a pair of dark sunglasses.
The blinding strobes would have made most flinch, but she remained composed.
It wasn't just for style. Two years ago, an explosion robbed her of her sight. The wounds got infected, and she had no choice but to have her eyes removed and replaced with artificial ones.
Ever since then, Evelyn's world had been locked away in darkness.
Her hatred, however, burned bright and focused: Nicholas Linwood, her father.
To clear a path for his illegitimate son, Nicholas had laid a trap meant to end her life.
Had Matthew not thrown himself over her at the critical moment, shielding her with his own body, she would have been torn apart.
She emerged from the wreckage blinded and severed all ties with her father.
Matthew, gravely injured in her defense, had hovered at death's door.
From that moment, Evelyn's devotion to him became absolute. He became her eyes, her entire world.
My soul, bound eternally to Matthew's side, has witnessed every chapter of their story.
Time and again, I have watched Evelyn unravel in his presence.
In quiet corners, she would weep until her shoulders shook, her cries sharp with agony, cursing the heavens for their cruelty and her father for his betrayal.
I always believed Matthew, who loved her so profoundly, would go to her.
That he would gather her in his arms and offer solace, but he never did.
Each time, he only watched from a distance.
His gaze was cool, inscrutable—a frozen lake whose depths I could never fathom.
As for my own feelings? Frankly, it felt like justice.
When I revealed my undercover identity, Evelyn ordered my eyes gouged out.
The pain was so profound it seared my very soul—a memory I have fought to bury.
As I writhed in agony, she ground my eyeballs beneath her heel, her sharp, malicious laughter ringing in my ears.
Now that fate had turned, and she suffered the same, I called that pure retribution.
The party was packed with celebrities and socialites, and as the new boss of the Linwood Group, Matthew was the center of attention.
His height and handsome features, now amplified by power and wealth, made him more tempting than forbidden fruit.
A crowd of men and women perpetually surrounded him.
He engaged them all with polite detachment, a faint, charming smile perpetually gracing his lips.
To those who flirted or offered more, his attitude remained impeccably consistent: never initiating, never refusing, never committing.
To many women, that ambiguity felt like hope.
Especially since his wife, Evelyn, was blind.
Most of them figured that with a little effort, they could swoop in and replace Evelyn in a heartbeat.