Two years ago.A hidden chapel.A storm raging outside.
Ava stood in front of Lucien in a simple white dress, soaked from the rain. There were no flowers. No guests. No fanfare.
Just them.And a promise that no one else would ever hear.
The priest's voice was steady.
"Do you, Lucien Blackwell, take Ava Hart to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward?"
"I do," Lucien said before the priest finished.
His eyes never left hers.
Ava could barely breathe.
Everything about it was reckless, dangerous, forbidden.
Lucien's powerful family had forbidden their relationship. She was a maid. A nobody. And he was the heir to the Blackwell empire.
But he had chosen her.
Over everything.
"I'm not letting you go," he whispered, cupping her cheek.
Tears rolled down her face.
"And I'll never stop choosing you."
The ring was a simple band, no diamonds, no signature Blackwell emblem. Just a silver promise he'd bought from a street vendor.
When he slipped it onto her finger, she held her breath.
It was the only moment in her life she'd ever felt... safe.
Later that night, in a small cabin near the woods, they lay curled together by the fire.
Lucien's fingers traced lazy patterns on her back. "Tell me what scares you most."
She laughed softly. "You forgetting this."
He kissed her shoulder. "I won't."
"Swear it," she said. "Swear you'll remember this night no matter what happens."
"I swear."
But just outside the cabin… someone watched.
A shadow beneath a tree.
A flick of a lighter.
And then... the smell of smoke.
The fire started around midnight.
The flames consumed the cabin quickly. Ava had woken up coughing, smoke thick in the air. Lucien had shielded her with his body as they ran out through a back door.
They survived.
But the chapel burned.The cabin.Their marriage certificate.
Everything that proved they had once been real.
Back in the present…
Ava sat alone in her tiny room, staring at the silver ring she kept hidden beneath the floorboards.
She hadn't worn it since the accident.
Not since Lucien had fallen into a coma… and forgotten her completely.
Her fingers closed around it.
"I remember," she whispered.
"For both of us."