Chapter 1

No Husband to List

“The procedure may slow the decline, but it cannot bring back memories you have already lost.”

Dr. Morgan pushed an aftercare form across the desk.

“If you choose surgery, your husband needs to complete this section.”

Elena did not take the form.

“I do not have a husband.”

Dr. Morgan glanced at the wedding ring on her hand.

“Your chart says you are married.”

Elena removed the ring and placed it in her purse.

“The divorce agreement has already been signed.”

Dante had signed it.

He simply did not know what he had signed.

Ten days earlier, Elena had opened the marital settlement agreement to the last page and placed it on his desk.

“I need your signature here.”

Dante was on his way to a family council meeting. He did not read the first page.

“Is it important?”

“It concerns both of us.”

Someone knocked and told him the council was waiting.

Dante signed his name and pushed the papers back to her.

“I trust your judgment.”

In three years of marriage, he had never believed Elena could leave him.

The exam room door opened.

Dante stood in the hall in a black overcoat.

“Our reservation is at seven.”

It was their third wedding anniversary.

As they approached the elevators, he glanced at the neurology sign.

“What did the doctor say?”

“It was a routine visit.”

His brow tightened. He was about to ask another question when Marco hurried down the hall.

“Don, Bianca cut her hand at the hotel.”

“Is a doctor there?”

“Yes.”

“Then let the doctor handle it. I am spending tonight with my wife.”

Marco did not leave.

“The cut only needs two stitches. She heard the doctor open the suture kit and locked herself in the bathroom.”

Dante’s expression stayed cold.

“She is thirty-one.”

“She told us not to disturb you or Mrs. De Luca.”

The elevator opened. Dante held the door for Elena.

Marco hesitated.

“She has not stopped shaking.”

Dante’s hand froze.

He remembered that Bianca was terrified of needles. When they were children, she hid after every injury. No one could bring her out except him.

More than ten years had passed, and he still remembered.

“Tell her I am not coming.”

Marco turned away.

“Wait.”

Dante stopped him.

“Is all the glass out?”

“One piece is still in her palm.”

“Any tendon damage?”

“No.”

The hard line of Dante’s face slowly eased.

Elena did not rush him. She knew every change in his expression. She knew his answer before he gave it.

“Which hotel?”

He looked at Elena with quiet regret.

“I will get her to open the door. My driver will take you to the restaurant.”

Elena straightened the collar of his coat.

“Go.”

He held her cold hand for a moment.

“I will call you.”

“All right.”

He left with Marco. After several steps, he looked back.

Elena had not argued or asked him to stay.

Her calm response eased the last of his guilt.

Seven years earlier, Elena had met Dante and learned that he loved Bianca.

Three years ago, Bianca fled Chicago the night before their arranged wedding. The Moretti and De Luca families were close to war. Elena put on her cousin’s altered wedding dress and married Dante in the family chapel.

He needed a Moretti bride.

Elena married him because she had loved him for seven years.

Her phone lit up.

Bianca opened the door. I will contact you later.

Elena did not respond.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember their wedding.

She remembered the chapel, the dress, and the ring.

She could not remember a single word of Dante’s vows.

Fear should have come first.

Instead, she felt relief.

Every memory she lost would take part of her love with it.

One day, she would forget his name, and they would finally be strangers.

Elena returned to the exam room and wrote one word in the spouse section.

NONE

Then she sent the signed marital settlement agreement to her attorney.

File it tomorrow. Do not notify Dante yet.

Forty-two days until Elena forgot Dante completely.