Chapter 1 A Night Of Despair

"I have a boyfriend. Get off me!" Kaitlin Clarke pressed her hands against the chest of the man pinning her down, but her arms had no strength left in them. Her fingers barely grazed him, and the helpless contact looked almost like the opposite of what it was.

The man's skin burned against hers, his eyes dark and fixed, not a flicker of hesitation in them. He ignored everything she said, tore her dress open, and forced himself inside her.

A sharp, tearing pain moved through her entire body and she cried out, low and broken.

On the wide bed of the hotel suite, his back rose and fell without stopping, his heavy breathing filling the room while her quiet sobs dissolved beneath it.

After what felt like a very long time, he finally went still, his weight still heavy on top of her.

The moment he stopped moving, Kaitlin pushed him off and grabbed what was left of her dress, pulling it back on as best she could.

She dragged herself out of the suite on unsteady legs, took the elevator down, and walked into the lobby to find Hugh Williams sitting calmly in the lounge. She stopped and stared at him.

"Did you do this? Hugh, why?" Her neck and chest were marked all over, but she couldn't bring herself to care about that right now. Something inside her had cracked open, and the way he was looking at her, cold and completely unmoved, made it worse. A sound tore out of her before she could stop it.

She threw herself at him. The bodyguards caught her before she could get close.

Her wrists were wrenched behind her back, and one of them drove a hard kick into the back of her leg.

The pain knocked the color right out of her face. Her knees hit the floor and she stayed there, chest heaving, caught somewhere between fury and complete devastation.

Hugh got up from his seat, walked over to her, and crouched down to her level. His fingers closed around her chin and tilted her face up toward his. "Did you already forget what you did last week? This is nothing compared to that. A small taste of what Rosalie felt."

Hugh had been the love of her life for years.

A year ago, he had been planning to propose. During the rehearsal for the occasion, the helicopter went down into the sea and Hugh disappeared with it.

Nobody could talk her out of looking for him. She spent six solid months searching, putting everything she had into it, before she finally found him on a remote island far from anywhere. When Kaitlin got to him, he didn't know who she was anymore. His memory was gone, and standing beside him was another woman.

Her name was Rosalie Douglas, the daughter of one of the company's business partners. She had gone after Hugh once before and been turned down without any ambiguity, and yet she had never quite managed to stay away from him over the years.

Following the plane crash, Hugh spent six months living on an island with Rosalie while claiming he had no memory of his former life with Kaitlin.

Despite being shown photographic evidence of their past relationship, Hugh chose Rosalie every time and viewed Kaitlin's efforts as a mere annoyance.

Still, Kaitlin felt grateful to Rosalie for saving Hugh's life. But their lives changed forever when they were cornered by a group of punks during a shopping trip.

Tragically, the men only took Rosalie, and the police later discovered her in a traumatized and disheveled state in a dark alley.

Blaming Kaitlin for the attack, Hugh decided to seek revenge by hiring a stranger to assault Kaitlin in the exact same manner.

"I am telling you the truth; I had nothing to do with that attack!" Kaitlin sobbed as tears filled her eyes. "I was knocked out during the struggle as well!"

Looking at him, she realized that the man she loved had become a cold stranger whose presence only caused her more pain.

Hugh snorted with pure disgust. "You set the whole thing up," he accused. "Why else did the punks leave you untouched? You are simply facing the consequences for your actions."

Kaitlin had saved herself for Hugh for their engagement night, only to have her innocence stolen by a stranger he had hired.

The irony of the situation was almost too much for her to bear.

Lifting her head, she revealed the bruises on her neck while her eyes overflowed with a deep, haunting sadness.

Waiting for the silence to stretch out, she finally let out a raspy laugh. "You are going to regret this day for the rest of your life, Hugh."

Scanning the marks on her skin, Hugh narrowed his eyes. "My only regret is that I didn't remove you from my life sooner after what you did to the woman I actually love."

Stunned, Kaitlin repeated his words about his love for Rosalie in her mind.

Doubling over in physical pain, she clutched her chest and tried to survive the crushing weight of his betrayal.

To her horror, he had discarded all their memories to focus on Rosalie, going so far as to orchestrate a crime against her for a sin she never committed.

Suddenly, the tension was broken when Hugh's assistant approached. "Mr. Williams, you have a call from Miss Douglas," the man announced.

Hugh's sneer softened into a tone of pure tenderness as he spoke into the phone. "Rosalie, has the dress arrived yet? Make sure to try it on. If there's even a slight issue with the fit, I'll have the designer over immediately to adjust it. I want you to look absolutely flawless for the wedding next month."

From the other end of the line, Rosalie's voice sounded delicate and shy. "I love it, Hugh, really. Thank you. But... what about your ex-girlfriend?"

Hugh's face instantly hardened into a mask of ice as his gaze flicked toward Kaitlin, who sat with her head bowed, looking as though her very soul had been hollowed out. "She nearly had you raped because of her jealousy, yet here you are, being far too kind and trying to defend her. The truth is, when I think of love, I only see the memories we shared. I feel nothing for her-it's a blank space. Surely, if she meant anything to me, I wouldn't have been able to forget her so easily."

At those words, Kaitlin's head snapped up with mechanical stiffness. Her eyes were completely parched-void of light, void of hope, and finally, void of tears.

A jagged, hollow laugh escaped her lips as her entire frame began to shudder; finally, she forced out the words with a chilling finality. "Hugh, there is absolutely nothing left for us now."