###Chapter 3
Kristen's POV
"Sir Michael," the maid piped up, stepping forward with a sly grin, "it was Sir William who brought her back. Said the Master and Madam are coming back soon, and we should take care of her properly so that they wouldn't get upset."
Then she turned to me with a smug little smirk and rolled her eyes. "Or maybe you knew Sir Michael was coming and decided to strut around half-naked on purpose, huh? Trying to seduce him now? You really don't quit."
'How downright audacious of her to even mock me?'
But I didn't say anything. Didn't even look at her. What was the point?
In front of me, Michael's sharp gaze landed on me like a knife. "Kristen, you really are trying to seduce me, huh? Even with amnesia, you can't stay away."
There was something disturbingly pleased in his voice. He shrugged off his coat and draped it over my bare shoulders like it was some chivalrous gesture.
The scent of it—sharp and clean, that same cloying hawthorn cologne he always wore—rushed up my nose, and bile surged in my throat.
All I could see in my mind was the image of him with Courtney in that car. The way he touched her, kissed her, gave her everything I had begged for.
Without hesitation, I peeled the coat away and handed it back.
"I'm just the maid around here," I said calmly. "Pretty sure I don't deserve that kind of attention from someone like you, Mr. Donovan."
I knew what he expected. Gratitude. Flushed cheeks. Adoration.
But I looked at him with none of that.
Just blank, cool indifference. And Michael hated it.
"Fine. Have it your way," he sneered, his jaw clenching.
He flicked his eyes at the maid, and she scurried off before returning with a wrinkled maid's uniform, tossing it straight into my arms like garbage.
"If you want to act like the help, then do your damn job," he snapped, glaring at me one last time before storming off.
I let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
With the broom in one hand and shame in the other, I swept my way down the halls to the outside of my brother's study. That's when I heard their voices—Michael and Courtney's loyal lapdog, my own brother, William.
Michael was speaking first.
"I mean, sure, I planned the accident. But it was only to help Courtney. She needed someone to stand up for her. That's all. You're the one who took it further and had Kristen drugged into forgetting everything. So that she wouldn't hurt Courtney anymore."
"You've done so much for her in secret," Michael added, "Don't you ever wish she knew the truth?"
I froze.
William's fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "As long as Courtney's happy in the time she has left, she doesn't have to know. I'll stay the nameless hero if that's what it takes."
My whole body got cold.
So that was it.
'William wanted to be a hero… so you made me the villain? You sacrificed me, your own sister, to make Courtney happy?'
I pressed in closer, barely breathing.
Then William said something that made my blood run colder. "And what about Kristen? Heard you're planning to have a baby with Courtney. What happens to Kristen then?"
Michael gave a bitter scoff. "Kristen? Please. She was already 'used up' in college. Do you think someone like her is fit to carry my heir? Courtney is pure. She's the only one worthy of having a child of mine."
William didn't say anything, so Michael went on like he hadn't just gutted me with those words.
"So yeah. When the hospital called and said Kristen was pregnant, I arranged that car crash. You think I'd let her trap me with a baby that might not even be mine? Marrying her was already charity."
I clutched the broom handle so hard it felt like my fingers would snap.
'That baby… the one I lost in that crash…'
Because I was 'dirty'? Because he couldn't be sure it was his?
Did Michael really forget everything?
In our junior year, he was kidnapped during a late-night ride. I'd followed him, only to be taken instead.
I was the one who got dragged into that abandoned building, the one they hurt. Again and again.
When they finally found me, I was barely conscious, bleeding out. The doctor said I might never carry a child again.
I'd been spiraling deep in depression, barely able to breathe.
Michael even held me through it. Cried with me. Promised me everything.
"I'll make them suffer," he said back then. "Every one of them. I'll destroy them for what they did to you."
And he did.
He showed me a video of them—those men—screaming in some godforsaken warehouse. I had nightmares for weeks. And every night, he was there, holding me, whispering how he'd never leave, that we'd be together forever.
He even blew half his fortune to plan the perfect wedding, swearing he loved me more than life itself.
But now?
Now, he was calling me filthy, acting like I was nothing, like everything I gave was meaningless.
"Courtney wants a beautiful wedding before she dies," Michael was saying, his voice suddenly soft, eyes probably glassy. "And I'm gonna give it to her."
"You're not worried Kristen might get her memory back and ruin everything?" William asked.
Michael sneered. "We'll just have the doctor sedate her again. Keep her dumb and clueless. Problem solved."
They were talking about me like I wasn't even human. Like I was just some broken doll, they could program and reset me when I got inconvenient.
Like I wasn't once my brother's sister.
Like I wasn't still his fiancée.
I stepped back, my breath caught in my throat, heart pounding in my ears. My lips pressed together to keep from screaming.
