Chapter 1

The black sedan crunched on the gravel outside Mia' s cabin.

She wasn' t expecting anyone.

A woman stepped out, dressed in a way Mia had only seen in magazines.

Expensive, sharp, cold.

"Amelia Hayes?" the woman' s voice was like ice.

"Yes?" Mia' s hand instinctively went to the doorframe.

"I am Eleanor Ashford. Ethan' s mother."

Ethan. Not Alex.

The world Mia had built with "Alex" over months of his amnesia, his recovery, their love, began to crack.

Eleanor Ashford stepped inside without invitation, her eyes scanning the small, clean space with a faint disdain.

"My son has regained his memory."

Mia felt the floor drop away. Alex, who had carved her a wooden bluebird and promised her forever, was gone.

Eleanor Ashford opened a sleek leather purse. She pulled out a check.

"This is five hundred thousand dollars."

She placed it on Mia' s simple wooden table.

"It' s for you to disappear. To forget you ever knew Ethan. He has a life, a fiancée, a future. You are not part of it."

Mia looked at the check, then at the woman.

The pain was a physical thing, crushing her chest. But her voice came out steady.

"I see."

She picked up the check.

"This isn' t a payoff, Mrs. Ashford."

Eleanor raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"This is compensation. For the months I nursed your son. For the food, the shelter, the medical care I provided when he was helpless and you didn' t know where he was."

Mia' s gaze was direct.

"It' s for my time and my resources. Nothing more."

Eleanor Ashford gave a thin, humorless smile.

"Call it what you wish. The point is, you will not contact him. You will not interfere. His wedding to Victoria Sterling is in a few weeks. A girl from a suitable family."

The words were like slaps. Suitable family.

Mia nodded slowly. "I understand my place, Mrs. Ashford."

"Good." Eleanor Ashford turned, her expensive heels clicking on the wooden floor. "The money is yours. Use it wisely. Stay away."

The black sedan drove off, leaving Mia alone with the check and the ruins of her heart.

Ethan.

He was Ethan Ashford.

She sank into a chair, the check fluttering from her numb fingers.

Later, the local news channel, usually focused on weather and park events, had a segment on national society.

There he was. Ethan Ashford, smiling, charismatic, his arm around a beautiful, blonde woman. Victoria Sterling.

The report detailed the upcoming Ashford-Sterling wedding.

"Gifts are already pouring in for the happy couple," the anchor chirped. "Miss Sterling was seen driving a rare vintage sports car, an early wedding present from the groom. And sources say she will wear the Ashford family heirloom diamond necklace, a piece not seen in public for fifty years."

A vintage sports car. A diamond necklace.

Mia' s hand went to her own neck, where a simple, hand-carved wooden bluebird used to hang.

Alex-Ethan-had carved it for her.

"A bluebird for happiness, Mia," he' d said, his eyes full of love. "For our happiness."

He' d kissed her then, a deep, promising kiss. He' d even talked about a ring, a proper proposal, once he figured out his past.

His past had found him.

And it had erased her.

The news report cut to a brief clip of Ethan speaking at some event. He was polished, confident.

Nothing like the gentle, unsure Alex who had leaned on her, who had loved her simple cabin, who had said her stew was the best food he' d ever tasted.

She remembered the day his family found him. The confusion in his eyes when they' d called him "Ethan."

Then, the dawning horror, the memories flooding back.

He' d looked at Mia, his face pale.

"Mia... I... I don' t..."

His mother had swept in, all efficiency and control.

He' d been whisked away.

A few days later, a terse, formal note had arrived.

"Mia, I apologize for any misunderstanding. My life is... complicated. The time we spent together was a result of my condition. I am Ethan Ashford. I am engaged. I wish you well."

It wasn't even signed with love. Just his full name.

The note felt like a dismissal. He had called her "unsuitable" for his world.

He thought she was not good enough to be his wife.

Mia picked up the check. Five hundred thousand dollars.

It was more money than she' d ever seen. More than her parents had earned in their entire lives.

It wouldn' t buy back her heart.

But it would buy her a new life. Far away from here. Far away from Ethan Ashford and his suitable world.

She stood up, her back straight.

She would leave.

She would use her skills, her EMT training, to help people who truly needed it. People who wouldn' t discard her when she was no longer convenient.

As she packed her few belongings into a worn duffel bag, she heard the distant sounds of the park staff at the main lodge, their voices carrying on the evening breeze.

She couldn' t make out the words, but the tone was dismissive, gossipy. She imagined they were already talking about the rich man who' d been staying with the quiet park ranger.

She booked a bus ticket online. A one-way ticket to a small town in the Colorado Rockies she' d read about, a place that needed medical help.

The date on the ticket was stark.

It was the same day as Ethan and Victoria' s lavish wedding.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

The bluebird was gone.

But she would find her own happiness. Somewhere else.