The Amnesiac Heir’s Fiancée

Start Reading

After the heir to the Campbell fortune got into a car crash and lost his memory, he forgot all about the simple girl who was his one true love.

So his family arranged for me to swoop in. A strategic alliance, an engagement.

But this heir, Damian Campbell, was once the family's most disfavored son. Back then, even I had been among those who had casually humiliated him.

Only the housekeeper's daughter had stood by him, supporting him on his ruthless climb to become the Campbell successor.

Fate, however, had a twisted sense of humor.

After Damian's amnesia, I never mentioned the past he'd forgotten. I played the part of his perfectly matched fiance, and our life together was, for the most part, peaceful.

Until two years later, when the housekeeper's daughter, who had been driven away by the Campbell family, returned from abroad.

And Damians memories began to resurface.

Once his mind and heart were back on track, he was destined to settle the score with me. Everything would be set right.

But then, I got pregnant.

I heard Damian was rushed to the hospital that morning, struck by a sudden, splitting headache at the office.

When I arrived at the door of the VIP suite, his assistant was waiting outside.

"Ms. Hopkins."

Nathaniel Reed, his executive assistant, stopped me before I could go in.

"Mr. Campbell," he said, his voice low, "he might be getting his memory back."

My fingers tightened on my purse. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

There were already people inside.

Besides Damian, there was another man and a woman. The man was one of Damian's few friends, Leo.

The woman was dressed in a simple, elegant dress. She had a clean, almost ethereal beauty.

She was speaking to Damian. "My name is Seraphina Rose."

"I'm back."

"Do you remember who I am?"

Her voice was soft, laced with a fragile, trembling hope.

Damian wasn't in the hospital bed. He was sitting in an armchair in the suites living area, looking as imposing as ever. Dressed in a sharp suit, his handsome face was cold and impassive, his legs crossed in a posture of casual authority. If not for the faint pallor of his skin, you wouldn't know anything was wrong.

He didn't answer her.

Instead, he spoke to his friend, his tone laced with ice. "Leo, stop bringing random women to see me."

He then motioned for his assistant to show them out.

As Leo led the woman away, he shot back, "Damian, you're going to regret saying that."

The woman's eyes reddened. She cast one last, lingering look at Damian before turning to leave. Her gaze was filled with a universe of emotions I couldn't begin to decipher.

Now it was just the two of us. As his fiance, I played my part. "Does your head still hurt?"

"I'm fine," Damian said, his voice clipped.

"Nathan said you might be remembering things?"

He pressed his fingers to his temple. "Just fragments. Flashes I can't hold onto. Someone crying in the snow, a lot of muffled voices"

Damian uncrossed his legs. A moment later, he pulled me onto his lap.

We'd been engaged for nearly a year and a half since his accident. It wasnt as if our relationship was purely platonic. We had the intimacy expected of a couple.

He spoke, his voice a low murmur against my ear. "That was just Leo playing a prank. Bringing in some girl and claiming she was someone I used to love."

Given Leos reputation as a troublemaker, it was an easy mistake for Damian to make.

He leaned in, his cool lips brushing the corner of my mouth. "Compared to her," he whispered, a hint of dark amusement in his tone, "your gentle beauty is far more my type."

He said it to reassure me, to dismiss the other woman. And it worked, because it was obvious his memory hadn't fully returned.

He had no idea who that girl, Seraphina Rose, really was. He didn't remember how important she had been to him.

I lowered my eyes, hiding the storm of fear inside me.

"Good," I whispered.

Damian was discharged from the hospital that same day. That evening, he took me back to his penthouse.

In the car, he held my hand, his thumb stroking my knuckles.

"Colette, I've been thinking," he said suddenly.

"About what?"

"If my memory does come back," he paused, "do you think I'll find out there are secrets between us?"

My heart hammered against my ribs. "Why would you ask that?"

"A gut feeling," he said, his gaze turning to the city lights blurring past the window. "I just feel like I've forgotten something something vital."

I was silent for a moment before answering softly, "Whatever happens, happens. What's meant to be remembered, will be."

Later that night, Damians hands were gentle on my shoulders and waist as he turned me so my back was to him.

"Is this okay?" His voice was a low rumble, tinged with restraint.

I finally nodded. "Be gentle."

In our relationship, Damian was the perfect partner, the ideal fianc. Even in our most intimate moments, he was always considerate of me.

After his amnesia, it was his grandmother, Matilda Campbell, who had personally chosen me for him. Before our engagement, she had summoned me for a private meeting. "This isn't just about the alliance between the Campbell and Ashford families," she'd told me bluntly. "Colette, when a beautiful, gentle, and understanding woman like you is by a man's side, no man can resist falling for you."

Her intention was clear: she wanted me to replace Seraphina in Damian's heart before his memory returned.

And on the surface, it seemed to be working. Damian was clearly attracted to me. A few months after our engagement, we fell into the easy rhythm of a couple living together. He desired me, physically.

But desire for a pretty face, for a warm body, is the most superficial connection of all.

What the old matriarch didn't know was that before Damian was the heir, during the darkest period of his life, Seraphina had been his rock.

And me?

Back then, I was one of them. One of the rich kids who looked down on him, who had played a part in his humiliation.

The moment Damian remembers, replacing Seraphina will be a fantasy.

He'll want nothing more than to destroy me.

I slept poorly, my dreams filled with ghosts from the pastscenes I desperately wanted to forget but were seared into my memory.

I woke to Damians hand on my forehead, wiping away a cold sweat.

"Bad dream?" he asked, his voice husky with sleep.

Seeing me clutch my stomach, he pulled me into his arms. He glanced down and his eyes softened. "Colette," he said gently, "you've started your period."

It was a few days early, but it was never regular. This time, though, the cramping was worse than usual. A small, dark stain had blossomed on his pristine white sheets.

My eyes fluttered closed. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't be ridiculous."

He didn't seem to mind at all. He got up, found a box of pads in the bathroom cabinet, and then carried me into the en-suite.

"Does it hurt much?" he asked, his touch incredibly gentle as he helped me clean up.

"It's okay."

"I'll have the housekeeper make you some ginger tea."

As my fianc, Damian had never lacked attentiveness. But behind this flawless facade was a man who was always in control, always rational. In front of me, he was calm, composed, unshakable.

This was the same man who, two years ago, had lost control so completely over Seraphina that he'd ended up in a near-fatal car crash.

The thought made a question slip from my lips. "Damian, have you ever considered that if you get your memory back, you might discover you were in love with someone else?"

"So in love you would have done anything for her."

"What would you do?"

His hands stilled for a moment. "Colette, what are you worried about?"

He lifted me onto the marble vanity, his hands bracketing me on either side.

"I'm just curious."

"If there really was someone like that," he said, his gaze serious, "I suppose the first thing I'd do is find out why I forgot her."

"And then?"

"And then," he paused, thinking, "I'd do what I believe is right."

It was a vague answer. But it was also terrifyingly honest.

On a weekday, Matilda Campbell insisted I bring Damian lunch at his office. It was, she said, what a good fiance does.

I arrived just as he was finishing a board meeting.

Damian, impeccably dressed, took the insulated lunch bag from me in front of his top executives. He handed it to Nathan.

"Thank you," he said, his arm wrapping naturally around my waist.

One of the executives was the head of a joint project between our families. And standing just behind him today was a familiar figure.

It was Seraphina.

Her eyes fell on Damians arm around me, and the light in them dimmed.

The executive greeted me first. "Ms. Hopkins." Then he turned to Damian. "Mr. Campbell, this is my new assistant, Ms. Rose. A brilliant graduate, just returned from her studies abroad. She'll be our liaison with Campbell Corp for this project."

"Is that so?" Damian's gaze flickered over Seraphina, cool and impersonal. "Welcome to the team. I trust you'll be up to the task." His tone was strictly business.

Seraphina bit her lip. "I'll do my best, Mr. Campbell."

An older vice president saw me and chuckled. "Damian, I hear wedding bells are in your future?"

A faint smile touched Damian's lips. "It's about time I settled down."

He then made the announcement to everyone present. "The wedding is set for three months from now. You'll all receive invitations."

A chorus of congratulations erupted.

"Congratulations, Mr. Campbell!"

"Ms. Hopkins is a lucky woman!"

Through it all, I watched Seraphina's face grow pale. Her fingers were clenched so tightly around her folder that her knuckles were white.

After lunch, Damian had me stay in his office.

It was the perfect opportunity. "Your grandmother wants me to quit my job to focus on wedding preparations." I taught piano at a prestigious international school and occasionally performed. But Matilda Campbell was a woman who did not tolerate being disobeyed.

"Do you want to keep working?" Damian asked, putting down his chopsticks.

"Yes. I love teaching. And I love music."

He saw the desire in my eyes. "If you don't want to quit, I'll handle it."

"Really?"

"You're my fiance," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's my duty to support your choices."

He did, however, expect a reward.

Before I could protest, Damian leaned in and captured my lips in a slow, possessive kiss. His hand rested on my waist, a firm, comforting pressure.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Damian pulled away, his fingers gently smoothing my hair.

Nathan entered with a file. Though Damian looked perfectly composed, I was still catching my breath in his arms. It was obvious what we'd been doing.

Nathan tactfully ignored it. "Mr. Campbell, this is the background check you requested on Seraphina Rose."

A knot of ice formed in my stomach. He was investigating her. He had seemed so dismissive at the hospital. Had some part of him recognized her after all?

Nathan placed the file on the desk, then glanced at me, hesitating.

"Is there something else?" Damian asked, sensing his reluctance.

"No, sir." Nathan retreated.

After he left, Damian turned to me. "Colette, do you know why I'm looking into her?"

I shook my head, my heart pounding.

"Your stepbrother came to see me," Damian explained. "He asked me to go easy on this project, to let Seraphina use it as a training ground. He said she's exceptionally talented."

He then dropped a bombshell he thought I didn't know. "There's a reason the Ashfords are so invested in her. They've found their long-lost daughter."

I feigned shock. "You mean Seraphina?"

"Yes." Damian nodded, opening the file for me to see. "The DNA results just came back. She's the Ashford heiress, missing for years."

As I processed this, he continued, his voice low and protective. "You're my fiance. Soon, we'll be husband and wife. I have to look out for you. I needed to know what kind of person she is. If she's going to be difficult, I need to be ready to protect you."

His words were a complicated mix of comfort and terror. I wasn't an imposter who had stolen Seraphina's identity; my mother had married into the Ashford family when I was a child. But the irony was staggering.

The file in front of me was detailed, but it only briefly mentioned that Seraphina had been adopted by a housekeeper. Her entire history with Damian, their shared past at the Campbell estate, had been completely erased.

Someone was deliberately hiding the truth.

With the wedding so close, Damian thought he was protecting me, his future wife. He had no idea that once Seraphinathe true Ashford heiresswas officially welcomed back into the family, the first thing she would want is the man this engagement was meant for. The man who was rightfully hers.

That afternoon, after my classes, I called my mother.

"Your stepfather was planning to announce it at the family dinner next week," she admitted. "When he asked you to bring Damian."

"Colette I didn't mean to keep it from you." Her voice was heavy with guilt. Then, she asked a strange question. "Have you been feeling alright lately? Any discomfort?"

I was about to dismiss her concern when, as if on cue, a dull, aching cramp started low in my belly.

"I'm fine, Mom. Just a little tired."

"Well, get some rest."

After we hung up, the pain intensified. My period this month had been strangespotty and light, but incredibly uncomfortable. I left work early and went to the hospital.

I never imagined I could be pregnant. Damian and I had always been careful.

For a while, it had been him. But recently, I'd gone to the doctor and gotten a prescription for a low-dose birth control pill, officially to help regulate my cycle.

Now, sitting in the OB-GYN's office, I stared as the doctor read my test results. "You're about four weeks along," she said. "Some light bleeding can be normal in early pregnancy."

She looked at me over her glasses. "But you need to be careful. Now that you're pregnant, you should avoid strenuous intimacy. Get plenty of rest, and try to keep your stress levels down."

The paper in my hand trembled.

Pregnant. I was actually pregnant.

Now, of all times.

I hid the test results in my bag. As I stepped out of the hospital, a light rain began to fall. I stood under the awning, watching the drops splatter on the pavement, completely lost.

On the day of the Ashford family dinner, I found my mother alone, overseeing the preparations.

I didn't mention the pregnancy. I just asked, "Are you hiding something from me?"

She froze. "Colette, what"

She finally broke. "It was the Ashfords who pushed for this marriage alliance. Now, to make it up to his real daughter, your stepfather wants to call off your engagement before her official debut."

"I couldn't let them just use you and throw you away," she whispered.

"So what did you do?" My voice shook.

"A month ago I paid the housekeeper at your place. I had her switch your birth control pills with vitamins." My mother couldn't look at me.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" My voice rose.

"I know, but I had no choice!" she cried, her eyes red. "Colette, you're my daughter! I can't watch you be sacrificed and then discarded! With a child, the Campbells can't just break the engagement. Even if Damian remembers everything, he'll have to treat you better for the baby's sake."

I took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to control my rage. "Mom, you're so naive. You don't know the first thing about Damian and Seraphina."

I stopped myself before I could say more.

A moment later, Damian found me. He came to my side, his fingers instantly finding mine. He brushed his hand over my bare arm, exposed by my sleeveless dress. "Why are you so cold?"

He asked a passing maid to fetch me a shawl.

I forced a smile. "It's nothing, just the air conditioning."

My younger half-brother, my mother's son with Mr. Ashford, ran up to Damian, chirping, "Brother-in-law!"

A small smile touched Damian's lips. He ruffled the boy's hair. "Your sister tells me you haven't been focusing on your studies. Work harder. If you make it into the top ten of your class, I'll get you whatever you want. Don't make your sister and me worry, understand?"

The boy, spoiled by everyone else in the house, was surprisingly obedient with Damian. "I will, brother-in-law!"

My mother chose that moment to interject. "Damian, you'll make a wonderful father one day. You two should start trying for a baby soon. Colette, why are you wearing flats tonight? Are you pregnant already?"

My heart stopped.

The smile vanished from Damian's face. His voice was cool and definite as he replied, "She's not pregnant. She had her period last week."

"Oh, I see," my mother said, disappointed. "Well, no rush. It will happen when it happens."

Later, when we were alone, I asked him directly, "After marriage comes children. But you don't seem interested in having any."

Damian was draping the shawl over my shoulders. His handsome face was unreadable. "There's no hurry," he said. "We can wait a few years. We're both still young. I've never thought about being a father this early."

"And" he hesitated.

"And what?"

"Growing up in the Campbell family, I've seen too much bloodshed over inheritances," his voice turned colder. "I don't want my child to grow up in an environment like that."

His indifference on the subject was palpable. In a ruthless family like the Campbells, where love was a currency and siblings were rivals, he truly had no desire for an heir.

My hand instinctively went to my stomach, where a tiny, secret life was growing.

Across the room, Seraphinanow officially Seraphina Ashfordwas descending the grand staircase just as she spotted Damian and me together.

She was transformed. Gone was the simple girl from the hospital. Tonight, she was breathtaking in a champagne-colored gown, her hair swept up to reveal a long, elegant neck.

Her eyes, however, were fixed on one person. "Damian" she breathed, her voice a fragile mix of longing and hurt.

Damians gaze met hers, cold and detached.

"Colette is only two months your senior," he said, his voice cutting through the air. "But given the circumstances, you should be calling me your brother-in-law."

The color drained from Seraphina's face. "I I understand. Brother-in-law." She managed a brittle smile and turned away, stumbling slightly.

The rest of the evening was a blur. The Ashfords formally announced the return of their long-lost daughter. My stepfather stood with her, beaming with paternal pride. "This is my daughter, Seraphina. From now on, she is the eldest daughter of the Ashford family. Please, make her feel welcome."

The guests flocked to congratulate her. Seraphina handled them with a grace that betrayed none of her earlier distress.

My mother somehow arranged for Damian and me to stay the night, in my old childhood bedroom.

He was oblivious to the web of schemes closing in around us.

After his shower, he came to bed. He kissed me, a simple goodnight kiss that slowly deepened. "It's been a while," he murmured, his fingers sliding under the hem of my nightgown.

I caught his hand. "Not tonight," I stopped him. "I'm still not feeling well."

His hair was still damp, his jawline sharp. I watched his throat move as he swallowed. "Your period is lasting a long time, isn't it?" he said, his voice low.

"It's probably just my hormones," I lied.

"I have a follow-up appointment at the hospital tomorrow," he said. "Why don't you come with me and get checked out?"

My breath hitched.

For the past two years, Damian had been undergoing treatments, trying to reclaim his past. In the last six months, he'd started working with a top specialist, trying a more aggressive, interventional therapy. It was clearly working.

He was going to remember everything.

Maybe as soon as tomorrow.