chapter 1

A year before I was supposed to marry the eldest son of the Sutton family, Graham Sutton, I got into a car accident and never walked again.

Zach Sutton, the second son, stepped in and offered to marry me instead.

He treated me like I was made of glass.

In the third year of our marriage, I went to the rehab center and overheard his doctor say, “You caused that crash just so Sierra Moore could marry your brother. You turned Natalie Foster into a cripple just to get her out of the picture. She’s still working this hard to recover. Don’t you think it’s time to change the plan and actually help her recover?

“And you even had the surgeon remove her uterus during the surgery. She can’t have kids now, so she won’t be able to give the Suttons an heir or threaten Sierra’s place. But if she gives up on walking altogether, I’m afraid...”

Zach’s voice was calm and cold.

“Sierra wanted to marry my brother. That was the only way I could make it happen. I’d do anything for her.

“As for Natalie, I’ll make it up to her in other ways.”

My chest hurt so badly I could barely breathe.

So this perfect marriage of mine was just a lie.

I secretly reached out to a specialist overseas and agreed to start that aggressive treatment plan.

“But the side effects will wipe your memory,” the doctor warned me.

I signed the papers without a second thought.

There was nothing here worth remembering anyway.

The rehab room was silent except for the sound of me falling again and again. Each time, I got up, shaking.

The girl in the mirror looked wrecked and miserable.

But I had never wanted to stand more than I did right now.

Zach stood nearby, trying to comfort me, “Natalie, you don’t have to push yourself so hard. Even if you never walk again, I’m not going anywhere."

And I believed him.

For the past three years, he never missed a single therapy session. Rain or shine, he was always there. I truly believed that even if I stayed in a wheelchair forever, he’d stay by my side.

Everyone said I was the luckiest woman alive to have found a man like him.

And for a while, I believed it too.

Until today. I was feeling a little better and came to the rehab center early, alone. That was when I heard him talking to the doctor.

He told him not to let me recover too fast.

The doctor sighed, “You really are cruel. You already wrecked her legs with that crash. Now you won’t even let her hope for recovery?”

Zach’s voice was light, almost casual.

“If she recovers, Sierra might feel threatened.”

Sierra. His brother’s fiancée.

He said, “Natalie came from a powerful family. If she still had her title as a world-class dancer, then once she married into the Suttons, Sierra wouldn’t stand a chance.

“The only way Sierra could shine was if Natalie stayed broken.”

I started shaking. My whole body went cold.

That day of the crash, I’d been pinned under the car. My legs were shattered.

I still remembered the sound of bones snapping. I screamed for help. No one came in time. My legs were done for.

When I woke up, the doctors told me it was over. My career, my life as I knew it, gone.

I had been about to step onto the world stage. I was going to be one of the best dancers alive.

After the crash, I fell into a dark hole. I even thought about ending it all. It was Zach who pulled me out of that place.

And now, I found out it wasn’t fate that ruined me.

It was him. He had messed with the brakes.

Because of him, I lost everything I’d ever dreamed of.

Just thinking about it made me shake.

He noticed and gently held my hand.

“Are you cold?”

He draped a coat over my shoulders, brought me a glass of water, even warmed up a towel and placed it on my neck.

So gentle. So thoughtful.

Everything he did looked exactly like love.

Too bad it was all just an act.

The woman he really loved was the one he could never have—his brother’s fiancée.