Chapter 1

A car accident wiped my memory clean.

When I woke up, there was only one contact left in my phone. The name saved was "Baby."

My hands trembled as I hit call. The voice that answered dripped with annoyance. "Selena Tucker. What kind of drama are you trying to pull now?"

It was Jayden Waters, my insufferable best friend of ten years.

But when he showed up at the hospital, I caught a glimpse of his phone. Our chat was open on his screen. The name he'd saved for me was "Dearest."

*****

The smell of disinfectant clawed at my throat.

I opened my eyes to a blur of white. My mind was blank.

"She's awake!" a doctor called out.

I tried to move my fingers. My body felt like it had been shattered and pieced back together, every bone aching.

'Who am I? Where am I? What happened?' The questions exploded in my head, but there were no answers.

The doctor saw the confusion in my eyes and sighed gently. "Do you remember your name?"

I opened my mouth, but my throat was too dry to speak.

A nurse handed me water. After a sip, I managed a whisper. "Selena Tucker?"

The name came out like instinct, as if it were carved into me.

The doctor nodded. "That's right. You're Selena Tucker. Do you remember anything else? Family? Friends?"

I searched the emptiness in my head. There was nothing but the name.

I shook my head, panic rising in my chest.

The doctor patted my hand. "Don't worry. You had a car accident and a mild concussion. Temporary memory loss happens. It'll come back gradually."

She said a few more things, then left with the nurse.

Alone in the hospital room, the silence pressed in on me. Fear coiled in my stomach, threatening to pull me under.

I forced myself to sit up and reached under the pillow until my fingers found my phone. The screen was cracked, but it still lit up.

I unlocked it, hoping for some clue to who I was.

The photo album was empty. The call log was empty. Even the social apps were wiped clean.

With each empty screen, my heart sank deeper. Then I opened the contacts. There was one entry. The name was "Baby."

That word felt like a sliver of light in the dark.

Whoever that was, they had to be the closest person to me. My boyfriend? Maybe my husband?

I held the phone like it was my last lifeline, my fingers trembling as I pressed call.

The phone rang for what felt like minutes before a voice answered. I took a deep breath, trying to sound gentle, tentative. "Baby...?"

There was a three-second silence on the other end.

Then a cold, impatient male voice cut through the line. "Selena. What kind of stunt are you trying to pull now?"

I froze. The voice was familiar, but it wasn't the soft, warm tone I'd hoped for. It was sharp and annoyed.

My eyes stung. "I-I was in a car accident. I lost my memory. I don't remember anything."

"Which hospital are you at?" His tone was still pretty blunt, but he wasn't quite as impatient as before.

I told him the name of the hospital.

"Stay there. Don't move. I'm on my way." He hung up before I could respond.

I stared at my phone, my head spinning.

Was this really my boyfriend? Why was he so cold? Did we fight?

It wasn't long before the hospital room door burst open with a loud bang.

A tall man walked in, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

He wore a plain black T-shirt, broad-shouldered, with deep-set eyes, a sharp jaw, and thin lips pressed into a hard line. He was striking, but the look on his face was anything but warm.

He came straight to my bed and loomed over me, his gaze sharp and skeptical. "Selena. What are you playing at now?"

I instinctively shrank back, feeling scared under his stare. "I-I'm not..."

He let out a short laugh and grabbed my chin, tilting my head up. His fingers were cold, and he didn't ease up. "Amnesia? You expect me to believe that?"

Tears welled in my eyes from the pressure, but I held his gaze. "I really don't remember anything! Who are you? Are you my boyfriend or something?"