Chasing His Divorced Wife
Elara spent three years invisible in her marriage to billionaire Damien Cross. When he hands her divorce papers, she disappears without a fight.
Six months later, an accident steals Damien's memory of the past five years. He doesn't remember his ex-wife, but he can't stop searching for the woman with sad eyes who haunts his dreams.
When he finds Elara thriving in Seattle, she refuses to let him back in. But this Damien is nothing like the cold husband she remembers, and as he uncovers their past, devastating secrets emerge.
Can you forgive someone who doesn't remember breaking you?
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Chapter 6
I arrived at Pike Place Market thirty minutes early, which gave me too much time to panic.
The therapist Dr. Reeves had recommended said I needed to stop trying to control everything. That my need for control had probably destroyed my marriage. I was trying. But standing here waiting for Elara, my hands wouldn't stop shaking.
James had called last night after I sent that final text. "You hired a PI? Are you insane?"
"I needed to know if she'd moved on."
"So you had her followed like some obsessed creep? Damien, this isn't you."
"How do you know? Maybe this is exactly who I am. Maybe I was always this controlling and possessive and-"
"Stop. You're spiraling again." James's voice had been firm. "Did you take your anxiety medication today?"
I had. It wasn't helping.
Now I stood near the fish market, watching tourists take photos, trying to look like I belonged here. Trying not to think about how Elara had agreed to meet me when she had every reason to refuse.
Then I saw her.
She wore jeans and a simple green sweater, her dark hair pulled back. No makeup that I could see. She looked tired. Because of me, probably.
"Hi." Her voice was cautious.
"Hi. Thank you for coming."
"I almost didn't." She studied my face like she was looking for something. "You look terrible."
"I haven't been sleeping well."
"Join the club." She gestured toward the waterfront. "Walk with me?"
We walked in silence for a few minutes. The market was crowded with Saturday shoppers, the noise giving us an excuse not to talk. Finally, Elara spoke.
"James said you're watching old security footage. Reading emails."
"I needed to understand."
"And do you? Understand?"
"I understand that I was absent. Cold. That I prioritized work over you constantly. What I don't understand is why." I stopped walking, made myself look at her. "The man in those videos isn't someone I recognize. He's cruel without even realizing it."
"He was very good at not realizing things."
The bitterness in her voice hurt. "I found more letters. Not just the one I told you about. I wrote you letters for three years. Apologizing, promising to change. I never sent a single one."
"I know. I found one after the divorce. Hidden in your office drawer."
"Why didn't you ever say anything? If you knew I was struggling-"
"Because words without actions are meaningless, Damien." Her eyes flashed. "You wrote pretty letters while you were missing our anniversary dinners. While you were forgetting my birthday. While you were making me feel like I was invisible in my own marriage."
"I know."
"Do you? Because knowing and understanding are different things."
We found a bench overlooking the water. Elara sat down, and after a moment, I sat beside her, careful to leave space between us.
"Tell me about the worst day," I said quietly. "Not the divorce. Before that. The day you knew it was over."
She was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn't answer.
"It was our third anniversary," she finally said. "You were supposed to be home at seven. We had reservations at that Italian place I loved. I wore the blue dress you'd complimented once." Her voice was flat, emotionless. "You didn't come home. Didn't call. I waited until midnight. The restaurant called twice to see if I was still coming."
I felt sick.
"The next morning, you came home at six AM. You'd been at the office. You didn't even remember it was our anniversary." She looked at me. "Do you know what you said when I cried?"
I shook my head.
"You said 'Don't be so dramatic, Elara. It's just a dinner.' Like my feelings were an inconvenience."
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing. You've apologized a hundred times in the past two weeks. It doesn't change anything."
"Then what do you want from me?"
"I don't know!" Her voice broke. "I don't know what I want. You show up here with no memory, acting like a different person, and I'm supposed to just-what? Forgive you? Forget three years of loneliness?"
"I'm not asking you to forget. I'm asking you to help me understand."
"Why should I?"
"Because maybe if I understand, I can make sure I never become that person again."
She laughed without humor. "You think this is about you becoming better? Damien, you destroyed me. I had to rebuild myself from nothing. And now you want me to relive all of it so you can feel better about your amnesia?"
"No. You're right. I'm being selfish again." I stood up. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to come."
"Sit down."
I sat.
Elara wiped her eyes. "There were good moments. In the beginning. You'd bring me coffee in the morning exactly how I liked it. You remembered small things-that I hated cilantro, that I collected old books, that I wanted to open my own gallery someday."
"What changed?"
"Your mother." She said it simply. "Victoria hated me from day one. She thought I wasn't good enough for the Hartley name. She had someone else picked out for you-Vivian St. Claire. Old money, 'proper breeding,' all that bullshit."
This matched what James had told me. "My mother wouldn't sabotage my marriage."
"Wouldn't she?" Elara's laugh was bitter. "She called me 'the artist' like it was an insult. She scheduled family events without telling me. She'd call you during our date nights with 'emergencies' that were never emergencies."
"I should have stood up to her."
"Yes. You should have. But you never did. And eventually, I realized you cared more about her approval than my happiness."
The words hit like a punch. "Did I know? That I was choosing her over you?"
"I told you. Multiple times. You'd promise to set boundaries and then break them within a week." She turned to look at me. "The worst part wasn't even the neglect. It was the hope. Every time you promised to try, every time you wrote one of those letters, I'd think 'this time it'll be different.' It never was."
"I'm trying to be different now."
"Are you? Or are you just scared because you can't remember who you were?" Her eyes searched my face. "What happens when your memory comes back? Will you go right back to being that person?"
"I don't know. But I'm in therapy. I'm learning to recognize the patterns. I'm-"
"Trying. Yes. You've said that." She stood up. "I need to go."
"Wait. Can I ask you something?"
She paused.
"Did you love me? At the end?"
"I loved who you were in the beginning. I loved the man you could have been. But the man you became?" She shook her head. "I don't know if I loved him or just the memory of who he used to be."
"And now? The person I am now?"
"I don't know you now. This could all be an act. Or it could be temporary." She started walking away, then stopped and turned back. "My friend Maya wants to meet you."
"Your best friend? The one who-"
"Who hates you, yes. She'll be at my gallery Tuesday night. Seven PM. If you really want to understand what you did, talk to her. She saw everything I tried to hide."
"I'll be there."
She nodded once and walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
I sat back down on the bench, my chest tight. This wasn't getting easier. Every conversation with Elara felt like pulling back layers of my own cruelty.
My phone buzzed. A text from Dr. Reeves, my therapist.
"How did the meeting go?"
I typed back: "I'm a worse person than I thought."
Her response came quickly: "That's progress. See you Monday."
I looked out at the water, wondering if understanding who I'd been would help me become who I needed to be. Or if I was already too broken to fix.
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7.1
I woke up gasping for air, expecting the cold concrete of a prison cell, but my fingers sank into the plush leather of a luxury Lincoln. I was twenty-four again, wearing the silver silk dress from the night my life was systematically destroyed.
Beside me sat my cousin Catrina, the woman whose carefully crafted lies had orchestrated my ruin and sent me to a penitentiary for five years.
In my first life, this was the night the dominoes fell. Catrina stole my jewelry to paint me as mentally unstable, and by morning, I was stripped of my medical license and labeled a criminal. My mother’s family, the Montgomerys, stood by and watched as my father’s company was devoured by wolves, treating my existence like a "liability" that needed to be managed. I still felt the phantom tremors in my hands from prison fights and the stinging betrayal of being discarded by the people I called family.
I had lived through five years of absolute hell, a former surgeon rotting in a cell while the people who framed me toasted to their success at galas I was no longer invited to.
"Don't be selfish, Dawn," Catrina whispered, reaching for the necklace that would later be used as evidence against me. "Let the jewelry shine on someone who actually matters."
She thought I was still the fragile victim she could manipulate, but she didn't realize I had returned from the grave with the cold, clinical calculation of a fixer.
Instead of walking into her trap at the gala, I forced the car onto a dark service road and dragged a dying billionaire, Jennings Stafford, from the wreckage of a burning SUV.
He was the only man powerful enough to destroy my enemies, and as I stitched his wounds with stolen supplies, I didn't ask for a thank you.
I looked him dead in the eye and proposed a contract that would set the world on fire.
"I want a strategic marriage. You get a harmless wife with a legacy name to calm your board, and I get immunity from everyone who ever touched me."
The bill for my five years in prison had finally come due, and I was here to collect.
8.2
Blurb:
Richard Tucker lost everything long before he died. Orphaned young, forced to work two jobs through college, and later dragged into a scandal with the daughter of a wealthy family, he became the unwanted son-in-law of the powerful Warrens. His mother-in-law despised him, every employer rejected him, and his life fell apart piece by piece.
Then one night, Richard was hunted down, beaten, and left to die in a cold alley.
But death wasn't the end.
Richard woke up with the Trillionaire System, a mysterious power that deposits $500 into his account every hour and rewards him with skills, strength, and unlimited financial advantages. With $360k a month at Level 1, Richard discovers a future he never imagined, one where he can rebuild himself, protect his wife, and rise far beyond everyone who mocked him.
Yet power comes with enemies.
A vengeful ex-suitor, a ruthless rival family, and a powerful heiress who wants Richard for herself move against him. Old threats return, new alliances crumble, and the truth about the scandal that ruined his life resurfaces with deadly consequences.
But as Richard climbs, a new identity emerges in the shadows:
Mr. Tusks, the mysterious billionaire quietly becoming the largest shareholder in multiple corporations and preparing to launch the most anticipated company in the nation, RT Enterprise.
When the world gathers for the grand unveiling, Richard plans to reveal who he truly is...
And when he does, every enemy who called him worthless will finally understand the man they tried to destroy.
9.2
She's stubborn, young, and craving love.
He's rich, famous, and impossible to read.
When 19 year old Liana Harper is suddenly arranged to marry Ethan Blackwell, the continent's most popular pop idol and heir to a vast empire, their worlds collide in a storm of arrogance, cold stares, and fiery clashes.
Thrown together by family pressure, mismatched personalities, and high expectations, Liana and Ethan must navigate a life neither of them chose filled with secrets, jealousy, and unexpected emotions.
Can a stubborn girl and a grumpy superstar survive a forced marriage? Or will their differences tear them apart before love even has a chance?
Enemies forced into marriage sparks everywhere.
8.6
I thought I was living the dream as the wife of a billionaire, until my husband came home at 2 A.M. reeking of expensive Scotch and "Midnight Rose"—the signature perfume of his ex-lover, Lucinda. While I spent my nights alone in the nursery with our sick twins, William was out in the city, making it clear to everyone that our marriage was nothing more than a cold, calculated business merger.
When I finally confronted him with the evidence of his infidelity, he didn’t offer an apology. He simply looked at me with disgust and told me I was a "liability" who should stay home and play the part of the perfect mother while he lived his real life with someone else.
The humiliation reached its peak at the hospital when his grandfather suffered a massive heart attack. William showed up with Lucinda on his arm, comforting her in front of the entire Sterling clan while his mother publicly mocked me for being a useless gold-digger. Even after William tried to force himself on me in a drunken rage the night before, he had the audacity to treat his mistress like the grieving wife while I was pushed into the shadows.
I felt something inside me finally snap. The man I loved had turned into a monster who saw me as an acquisition rather than a human being. I was ready to sign the divorce papers and disappear with nothing but my pride, just to escape the suffocating weight of his indifference.
But then, the dying patriarch called me to his bedside and handed me a sword: five percent of the company’s voting shares and a three-month ultimatum. I’m not running away anymore. I’ve decided to stay for ninety days, but not to save a dead marriage. I’m staying to become the one thing William Sterling never saw coming—his most dangerous nightmare.
9.2
Lainey spent her last life destroying herself for Larry, only to become the woman he discarded most cruelly. He never loved her, never wanted her, and made no secret that his first love still owned his heart.
On their wedding day, he abandoned Lainey at the altar for that woman, then later used Lainey as nothing more than a stepping stone for his company's rise. In the end, he even had her kidney ripped from her.
Reborn at the very moment everything began, Lainey called off the wedding without hesitation. But after losing her, Larry begged desperately.
Lainey shot him a cold look, then turned and walked straight into the arms of a powerful, aloof man, who stared down at Larry with pure contempt. "She's my wife now."
7.2
Still nursing the wounds of a devastating breakup, Olivia turns to online dating When she agrees to meet a charming stranger, she braces herself for awkward small talk and forced smiles. What she doesn't expect is to walk into the wrong date.
Embarrassed. Olivia is ready to walk away. But then a perfect stranger Mr. Damian Carrington decided to make it worthwhile. Handsome, confident, and dangerously persuasive, he offers to salvage her ruined evening. One drink turns into two. One laugh turns into a kiss. And one reckless, drunken night leads to a one-night stand she swears she'll forget.
Until she walks into work the next morning... and finds out her new boss is none other than Damian Carrington.
He remembers everything.
And he's not letting her go.
Damian is powerful, relentless, and hooked on making Olivia his no matter how many walls she builds or how many times she says no. But Olivia knows the risks. She's already been burned by love, and getting involved with her boss could destroy everything she's worked for.
As fate pulls them together and buried secrets begin to surface betrayals, heartbreaks, and truths neither of them are ready to face Olivia must decide: will she protect her heart, or risk it all for a man who could ruin her... or love her beyond reason?
When love is born from a lie, can it survive the truth?