I’ve spent years pushing her away. She thinks I hate her, but really, I know she deserves better than a college dropout turned tattoo artist. She’s the good girl, the complete opposite of my bad boy nature. But something about her kind eyes and heart-shaped face has always caught my attention, not that she has ever realized that with how I treat her.

I caught my fiancé cheating on me with my best friend in our apartment. I was done. There wasn’t a point in sticking around to hear their excuses. I ended up alone in a hotel bar, drinking the last five years of a relationship away, not to mention a lifelong friendship. I was well on my journey to forgetting until the hot guy in a suit thought he’d interject, telling me to slow down. Who did he think he was? If I want to drown in my sorrows I will. That’s the last thing I remember.

We were high school sweethearts. One day she disappeared after class and didn't come back. She left me high and dry. I was angry. I took it out on her by sleeping with her best friend. Then she showed back up with a story I didn't believe. I was done. I married her best friend after she got pregnant, and now I have a 17-year-old son who's stuck in the middle of our divorce. But then I saw my ex again. Feelings arose I thought I buried all those years ago. She's still mine. I found out there's been no one since me, and now that I have her again, I'll make sure there is no one else.

In one second, my life disappeared. My past. My memories. My future. The only certainty I have from the last three years is that my older brother is dead and that I am the only eyewitness. In order to protect the case, the lawyers demand no one give me any information about my life...I must remember on my own. My only help comes from my brother’s best friend and world-renowned investigative reporter Spencer Cross. He has no idea how many nights I’ve spent dreaming of his name—and his body—next to mine. Each day we spend together, I find it harder to want my old life back.

I was the only daughter of the Italian American mafia boss on the East Coast. After my mother was murdered, he made sure the world forgot he had a daughter. I had to pretend to be the girl I’ve never been: meek. There is not one submissive bone in my body, but I had to look and act the part. Matteo De Salvo is the only person that has ever made me nervous. My skin itched around him and my throat closed up. I watched him from a distance, the defiant part of me hoping he’d catch me. He did.