Chapter 2

I stared at that condom in the trash can. My stomach lurched again.

I turned away and started throwing up again. Nothing left to come out, just bile and the bitter taste of betrayal.

"Judy? Baby, are you okay in there?"

Henry's voice came through the door.

He sounded worried, and that somehow made everything worse.

I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, but my brain wouldn't stop replaying things I didn't want to remember.

Sixteen years old. Henry Parker showing up at my locker every single day, the other girls staring while he grinned like an idiot when I told him to leave me alone.

My dad dying in a shootout working for Henry's family, and after that the Parkers paid for everything, school, apartment, food. I couldn't exactly tell Henry to fuck off after that, but I tried anyway. He just kept coming back.

Then the kidnapping. Zip ties cutting into my wrists in some warehouse that smelled like rust and gasoline, certain I was going to die. Henry crashing through the door and taking three knife wounds getting to me, six months in the hospital. I sat by his bed and cried, and he smiled at me, and said dying for me would've been worth it. Protecting you is all I ever wanted to do.

I believed him.

And now he'd fucked Kenna in our apartment, then cleaned up and met me at the door asking where I'd been.

Fresh tears came.

"Judy, please. You're scaring me. Let me in."

I sat there until the crying stopped.

When I opened the door, he pulled me straight into his arms.

"What happened? Are you sick? Do we need to go to the hospital?"

His hands rubbed gentle circles on my back, I let him hold me, let myself notice how warm he was.

These same hands were on her an hour ago.

I still don't know what to call someone like Henry. Liar feels too simple, fake feels wrong, because this, right now, he meant it.

He grabbed a washcloth and ran it under warm water, wiped my face clean, then my hands. Found me fresh clothes and helped me change, and guided me to bed and tucked the blanket around me.

Henry hated mess, hated the smell of vomit, but he'd just cleaned it off me with his bare hands and didn't even flinch.

He was still that person. The one who took three knives for me.

I wanted to tell him everything right then. That I remembered now, that the car accident fixed me, that if he just stopped this, maybe I could forgive him.

I opened my mouth. "Henry, I want—"

His phone buzzed.

He glanced at the screen and gave this knowing smirk.

Something in my chest went quiet.

He typed back, still smiling, then looked at me. "Sorry, babe. What were you saying?"

I stared at him, then smiled too.

"Would you ever cheat on me?"

He froze for half a second, then pulled me against his chest so tight I could barely breathe.

"Never." His voice went hard and final. "I'd rather die than betray you. You're everything to me, Judy."

I pressed my face into his shirt and listened to his heartbeat. Didn't say a word.

Something inside me cracked. No sound, just gone.

"Get some rest," he said, kissing my hair. "I need to handle something in the study. I'll be back soon."

He left, door closing softly behind him.

I lay there staring at nothing, gripping the sheets. Then I got up, bare feet on hardwood, and walked toward the study.

The apartment was dark except for that thin line of light under the study door.

I stopped a few feet away. The sounds coming through weren't typing or papers shuffling.

It was breathing. Then Kenna's voice, breathy.

I took a step closer.

A low grunt from Henry. Then a slapping sound.

My hand went to the wall to steady myself.

"Henry..." Kenna's voice again, whispering, teasing. "What if we let Judy see us?" Kenna continued, "You know, when she caught us having sex in your wedding bedroom, that's what made her sick in the first place. Maybe if she gets shocked again, her memory would come back. Wouldn't that be interesting?"

My heart stopped.

I stood there trying to make sense of it, then it clicked all at once. I didn't get sick out of nowhere. There was no random neurological event. I got sick because I saw them together. That's what broke me. That's what made my brain start erasing itself every single night.

He caused this. And then he used it.

"Don't." Henry's voice dropped low, threatening, but nothing else stopped. His breathing stayed even, the movement didn't change. "Don't ever say that again."

Then quieter, colder, almost amused.

"Besides, if it weren't for her condition, do you think you'd still be in my bed right now?"

I stood frozen outside the study door.

Inside, Kenna's voice turned whiny. "You've been so focused on Judy lately. What about me? You just leave me sitting out there alone."

"Come here." Henry sounded amused. "I'm paying attention to you now, aren't I?"

A soft giggle.

"Baby..." Henry's voice again, breathy now. "As long as Judy doesn't get her memory back, we can do whatever we want."

"Anywhere." His voice was rough. "However we want."

My throat closed up.

"Then..." A pause. "Will you marry me?"

The sounds stopped.

I held my breath.

Inside the study, Henry's entire body went rigid.

He pulled back and stared down at Kenna on his desk, her dress hiked up around her waist. Her eyes were bright.

"What did you just say?"

"I asked if you'd marry me." She reached up to touch his face. He caught her wrist.

"My wife will only ever be Judy." The words came out cold and final. "Get that through your head right now. If you can't, we're done here."

Kenna's face crumpled. She sat up, adjusting her dress with shaking hands. "You're so cruel."

"I'm being clear." Henry stepped back, already buttoning his shirt. "I thought you understood the arrangement."

"I do, I do." She grabbed his arm. "I don't need the title, okay? I don't need to be Mrs. Parker. But..." She bit her lip, looking up at him through her lashes. "Can you at least give me a proposal? A real one, with a ring? Something that's just for me?"