For several seconds after Wilder pulled away, I could barely collect my thoughts.
My fingers were still gripping the collar of his suit, and I could feel the rapid movement of my chest beneath the wedding dress.
The warmth of the kiss lingered on my lips, but the sound of the camera flashes had already faded into the background.
Around us, the people gathered in the lobby were watching in stunned silence, their earlier whispers replaced by an uncomfortable curiosity.
Then Magnus’s voice tore through the room.
“Get away from her!”
I turned toward the entrance just in time to see him break away from the hotel staff.
His face was flushed with anger, and whatever restraint he had managed to maintain until that moment had completely disappeared.
He pushed past one of the guards and started toward us, his eyes fixed on me as though he had forgotten where he was or how many people were watching.
“Nyxia!”
I instinctively moved backward, but Wilder’s arm remained firm around my waist.
Magnus kept coming.
He was close enough that I could see the fury in his eyes, and for a brief second I thought he might actually reach for me.
Before he could, two security guards intercepted him from either side.
One seized his right arm while the other caught his left, stopping him only a few steps away from us.
“Let go of me!” Magnus shouted, twisting against their grip.
“What the hell are you doing?
She’s my girlfriend!”
The words struck me with such force that I forgot about everything else.
My girlfriend.
I stared at him, unable to reconcile the man standing in front of me with the one I had seen beside my hospital bed.
The memory came back with uncomfortable clarity.
I could still remember lying beneath the harsh hospital lights, pretending that I couldn’t remember any of them.
Magnus had stood there looking almost relieved when I failed to recognize him, and when I asked who he was, he had answered without hesitation that he was Nova’s fiancé.
Nova’s fiancé.
He hadn’t claimed me then.
He hadn’t even tried to suggest that we were still together.
He had accepted the role of the man engaged to my younger sister while I was lying in a hospital bed, supposedly unable to remember the three years we had spent together.
Yet now he was standing in the middle of a luxury hotel, fighting security guards because another man had kissed me, loudly insisting that I was his girlfriend.
The contradiction was almost laughable.
Except it wasn’t funny.
It hurt.
Magnus continued struggling against the guards, apparently too consumed by jealousy to realize what he had just revealed.
“She shouldn’t be doing this!” he shouted.
“She can’t just kiss another man like that!
She’s my girlfriend!”
There was something painfully revealing about the way he spoke.
He wasn’t asking whether I was safe.
He wasn’t concerned about why I was here, why I was wearing a wedding dress, or what had happened to me since the last time he had seen me.
His entire anger seemed to come from the fact that he believed I had violated something that belonged to him.
And suddenly, I understood him better than I ever had before.
Magnus had chosen Nova when it suited him.
He had accepted her money, her attention, and the future she offered him, while I had been left behind without so much as an apology.
He had stood beside my hospital bed and allowed me to believe that he had no desire to return to me.
But apparently, choosing someone else did not mean he was willing to let me go.
He wanted Nova.
He wanted everything Nova could give him.
And at the same time, he still wanted the certainty that I would remain somewhere within his reach.
It was as if he believed he could discard me when I was no longer useful and then reclaim me whenever his pride demanded it.
For years, I had mistaken that behavior for love because I had been too invested in the relationship to see what it had become.
I had supported Magnus when he had little, helped him whenever he needed money, and stood beside him through problems that he should have been dealing with himself.
I had never expected gratitude in return because I believed that was what people did for someone they loved.
But standing there now, listening to him claim me in front of a room full of strangers, I finally saw how one-sided that belief had been.
He didn’t want me back.
He simply didn’t want to accept that I could belong to anyone but him.
Something inside me hurt at the realization, but the pain didn’t last.
It slowly hardened into something much colder.
I had spent enough time allowing Magnus to decide what I was worth.
I wasn’t going to let him do it again.
I tightened my fingers around Wilder’s arm.
Magnus noticed the movement almost immediately.
“Nyxia, listen to me.”
There was a desperate edge in his voice now.
For a moment, I considered simply staring at him and saying exactly what I thought.
But then I remembered the role I was playing.
To Magnus, I was supposed to be a woman who had lost her memory.
He had been counting on that when he introduced himself as Nova’s fiancé.
He had relied on the fact that I couldn’t challenge his version of the past because, as far as he knew, I no longer remembered it.
So I gave him exactly what he expected to see.
I let the anger leave my expression and replaced it with confusion.
I looked from Magnus to the guards holding him, then back at Magnus as though I genuinely couldn’t understand why he was shouting at me.
“What are you talking about, Magnus?” I asked quietly.
His face changed.
I could almost see the moment he realized his mistake. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
I kept my expression innocent and tightened my hold on Wilder’s arm.
“I don’t understand why you’re calling me your girlfriend.”
Magnus opened his mouth, but no explanation came immediately.
I turned slightly toward Wilder before looking back at Magnus.
“I am his wife.”
The words settled over the lobby.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The security guards remained frozen in place with Magnus between them, while the guests watched the scene with undisguised fascination.
Magnus’s face had gone pale.
Wilder looked down at me.
For the briefest moment, I couldn’t read his expression.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted into a slow, satisfied smile.
He understood.
He knew exactly why I had said it.
And judging by the look in his eyes, he liked my answer far more than he was willing to admit.
Magnus finally found his voice.
“Nyxia, that’s not….”
“I don’t understand,” I interrupted, keeping my voice soft.
“Why would you say that I’m your girlfriend when I’m married to Wilder?”
His expression tightened.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then how did you mean it?”
Magnus hesitated.
Wilder finally spoke.
His voice was calm enough to make the entire situation feel even more humiliating for Magnus.
“I’d like to know that myself.”
Magnus looked at him.
Wilder’s arm remained around my waist, his posture relaxed despite the chaos surrounding us.
“You forced your way into a hotel because you wanted to see my wife,” he continued.
“You shouted at my security, tried to reach her, and then announced in front of everyone that she was your girlfriend.
That’s a rather unusual way to behave toward a married woman.”
A few whispers rose from the crowd.
Magnus’s face reddened.
“You don’t understand our relationship.”
“Then explain it.”