Chapter 1

After the accident, I played along with amnesia—only to hear my husband claim we were "just friends."

Heartbroken and betrayed, I discovered the truth. I'm the long-lost heiress to a billion-dollar empire.

Now watch me reclaim my throne and serve ice-cold revenge to the scumbag ex and fake best friend who thought they'd destroyed me!

*****

My head was pounding and the harsh white light made me squeeze my eyes shut. The smell of disinfectant told me I was in a hospital.

"You're awake?" A familiar voice broke through the fog.

I forced my eyes open and saw Andrew Collins sitting beside my bed, looking exhausted. He was my husband. We'd been married for three years.

"What happened to me?" I asked.

"You were in a car accident," he said flatly. "The doctor said you might have temporary memory loss."

I blinked and everything from before the crash came flooding back. I asked playfully, "Who are you?"

He didn't smile or show any concern. His face stayed completely blank as he answered, "We're friends."

Those words hit me like a knife to the chest. I'd expected him to panic, to cup my face in his hands and say "I'm your husband!" But he couldn't even be bothered to fake basic concern.

I'd been about to laugh and say "gotcha," but instead what came out was, "Oh. Well, thanks for being here."

"Mm-hmm." He glanced down at his phone, then stood up. "Since you're awake, I should go. I've got things at the office."

He headed for the door and tossed back without even looking at me, "Get some rest."

And just like that, what started as a joke about having amnesia turned into the wake-up call that showed me the truth about my marriage. Turns out in his eyes, we were just regular friends.

Nobody knew that my relationship with Andrew was falling apart. We'd been the couple everyone envied back in college, and after graduation, we'd moved to Silverbrook together to build our careers at the same investment firm.

We'd kept our marriage private because of workplace politics, but I never imagined that decision would mean losing all visibility into what was really happening between us.

Not long after Andrew left, the hospital room door opened again. Jessica Lane poked her head in and when she saw I was awake, her face lit up with exaggerated surprise. "Vivian! You're finally awake. I was so worried."

Jessica was my best friend of eight years and also a new analyst at our company. She rushed to my bedside and grabbed my hand. "The doctor said you might have amnesia, and I was terrified you wouldn't remember me."

Compared to Andrew's coldness, her concern seemed genuinely warm. But when she pulled out a thermos from her bag to pour me some water, I noticed a new bracelet on her wrist.

That bracelet was the gift Andrew had given me for our one-year anniversary.

"Like it?" Jessica caught me staring and showed it off with a pleased smile. "It's the latest style, limited edition."

A sharp pain shot through my chest, but I kept my face neutral. "It's beautiful. Where'd you get it?"

"A friend gave it to me," Jessica smiled mysteriously, then changed the subject. "By the way, did Mr. Collins stop by earlier?"

I nodded. "He just left."

"He's such a busy guy. It's really something that he found time to come see you." There was a hint of smugness in her tone. "We've had so many projects lately, and we've been working late together pretty much every night."

A bitter laugh escaped me. So all those nights he'd been "working late," he'd actually been with Jessica. I'd been naive enough to think he was building our future together, when really he'd been weaving a web of lies.

When the doctor came in to check on me, Jessica's phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen and her face lit up with barely concealed joy. "Vivian, something urgent came up at work. I've gotta run, but you rest up and I'll come visit again soon!"

After she left, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand. Andrew and I hadn't messaged in three days, but his Instagram had a new post, a team photo with Jessica standing right next to him, throwing up a peace sign.

Their captions were perfectly in sync too. Andrew had written "Two peas in a pod," and Jessica's said "Great minds think alike." What incredible chemistry they had.

I locked my phone and stared out the window. Sunlight streamed into the hospital room, bright and warm, but it couldn't reach my frozen heart.

I'd trusted them both so completely—one was my husband, the other my best friend. Now they were partners in betrayal.

I touched the dull ache at the side of my head and felt a strange sense of relief. Maybe this car accident was a blessing in disguise, a wake-up call to see this marriage for what it really was.

Three days after I got out of the hospital, I stood outside our front door and took a deep breath. This place that used to feel so full of love now just felt like a house built on lies.

I pushed the door open and found Andrew on the couch scrolling through his phone, the screen lighting up his face as he smiled, a smile I hadn't seen in ages.

"Andrew." I said his name quietly.

His head snapped up, and his expression shifted from soft to startled in an instant. He flipped his phone over and locked it against the couch cushion. "You're out of the hospital?"

I laughed—at him, at myself. "We need to talk."

Our conversation was surprisingly calm. No shouting, no tears, just two adults having a cold, rational discussion.

"Why?" I asked him. "Is it because of the promotion, or do you actually have feelings for Jessica?"

He stayed quiet for a long time before finally answering. "People always want to move up in the world."

One sentence that said everything about how practical and calculating he'd become. I nodded. "I get it. Well, I hope you fly high and get everything you want."

A flash of guilt crossed his face. "Vivian, don't hate me."

"I don't hate you," I said softly. "I just don't love you anymore."