Chapter 1Unforgotten Tides

The moment I learned that my husband, Sean, was actually Adrian Stephen, the sole heir to the Stephen fortune who had vanished in a plane crash, I did the sensible thing. I drew up a divorce agreement.

He tore it to shreds.

"Ava, I don't remember any of that!" he pleaded, his voice ragged. "I want to go home. I miss the smell of the sea, I miss Goldie and Patches." He grabbed my arm. "Let's go back to Seaside Cove. Let's not waste another minute with these people."

I looked up. Victoria, the woman who had been Adrian's wife before his memory loss, was staring at me with a look of pure, venomous despair. Nearby, a little boy—Adrian's son—was crying, trying to run to his father, only to be held back by his nanny.

I swallowed hard, my fingers stiff as I pointed to the signature line. "Sign it, Sean."

"You can let me down," I whispered, "but you can't abandon the wife and child who have been searching for you for six years."

...

Sean's eyes went red. This gentle man I knew roared, shoving Victoria away as she tried to approach him.

"Don't touch me! How many times do I have to tell you? I don't remember anything from before! You're Adrian Stephen's wife, that's Adrian Stephen's son! What does any of that have to do with me, with Sean?"

He clutched his head in anguish. "I'm begging you, just leave me alone! Are you trying to drive my wife away? Is that what you want? I don't have a single memory of being Adrian Stephen, so why are you all trying to make me responsible for his life?"

Seeing his pain, Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her eyes grew vacant, and only when she looked at me did a flicker of life return to her hollow expression.

She hated me. With every fiber of her being.

In her eyes, I was the other woman who had stolen her husband, the homewrecker who had destroyed her family. And from a certain point of view, she wasn't wrong.

The year I met Sean, he was a married man.

But I didn't know that. And neither did he.

I found him on the rocks near my small fishing village, Seaside Cove. A shredded parachute was still strapped to his back, and half his face was caked in dried blood, but even then, his handsome features were undeniable.

I took him to the small police station on the island. He couldn't remember a thing, not even his name. He joked that he might be a merman who had swum up from the depths of the ocean.

Officer Miller took one look at his dazed expression and figured he was a mentally ill man abandoned by his family. He took a routine blood sample for the database and told me to take him home for the time being.

"Ava, he might be a few cards short of a deck, but he’s built solid," Miller had said. "You don't have a man around the house. He could be a great help. A hot meal for a strong back? Sounds like a good deal for you."

"We'll contact you if we ever find his family."

So, I took him in. I even gave him his name: Sean. He said he was a merman from the sea, so I picked the name of a merman from an old storybook.

And just like that, Sean became a part of my life.

For six years, he went from coming back with empty nets to being the undisputed fishing king of Seaside Cove. From a man who couldn't cook to a master fish filleter who moved with ruthless efficiency. He went from being the hired hand at Ava's place to being Ava's husband.

I thought our simple, happy life would go on forever. Then Officer Miller showed up at our door again.

He looked at me, his expression grim. "Ava... whatever I'm about to tell you, you need to be strong..."

"Sean... he wasn't abandoned. We got a DNA match. He's Adrian Stephen, the only son of the Stephen family, the wealthiest family in Northwood City. He went missing in a plane crash."

"The impact must have caused his amnesia. And before the crash... he was already married. With a child."

"Ava," Miller said gently, "I think your merman has to swim back to the sea."

My heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach with a silent, sickening thud. I stood there, frozen, until Sean's enraged shout snapped me out of it. He had flipped over Officer Miller's desk.

"Miller, you've got a thing for my wife, don't you? Is that why you're stirring up this trouble? So that's why you're still single, you're trying to steal her from me!"

"Don't think I won't deck you just because you're a cop! You dare spread lies about me, I'll..."

Sean was detained for a week for obstructing an officer. The day I picked him up from the station, I dragged him onto a plane to Northwood City.

I had to know the truth. Was he someone else's Adrian, or was he my Sean?

The answer, as it turned out, was not the one I wanted.

Officer Miller was right. Sean was the missing Stephen heir. He had a wife, and his son was now eight years old.

From Victoria's perspective, I was the villain. The homewrecker, the cause of all her pain.

Sean clutched my wrist, his eyes pleading like a big, abandoned dog's.

"Ava, don't leave me," he whispered. "I don't know them. How can I be responsible for them?"

He looked terrified. "You haven't found someone else, have you? Is that what this is? Are you using this as an excuse to get rid of me? If that's it, we can figure it out. You know I'm not a jealous man."

Victoria's breath hitched, and she looked as if she might shatter into a million pieces. The hatred in her eyes shot toward me like poisoned arrows, a constant reminder that the happiness I'd found had been stolen directly from her.

I bit my tongue, hard. The pain jolted me back to reality.

Steeling myself against the dull ache in my chest, I pulled my hand from his grasp.

"Stop it, Sean... Adrian."

"The Stephens have hired the best therapist for you. I'm sure your memory will come back soon."

I took a shaky breath. "Do you remember Mrs. Gable next door? Her husband ran off with another woman while he was working on the mainland. You were always giving her fish. You know better than anyone how hard her life is, raising her son alone."

"You always said that a child without a father is the most pitiful thing in the world. Well, look at Cole. He's your son. Are you going to be the kind of man who abandons his own wife and child?"

Eight-year-old Cole bit his lip, fighting back tears, refusing to cry in front of the 'bad woman.' He stared at Sean, his small face a mixture of stubbornness and hurt.

The man and the boy mirrored each other, the same expression on their faces. It was a bond of blood, something that could never be truly severed.

Victoria, seeing the flicker of pity in Sean's eyes, gave Cole a gentle push. The boy immediately stepped forward and threw his arms around Sean's legs.

"Daddy!"

He was just a child. A child who hated the father who had left him for another woman, but who desperately wanted him back. Cole pulled a stack of old photos from his pocket and pressed himself into Sean's embrace.

Sean flipped through them, one by one. In each photo, a stranger who looked just like him had one arm around the boy and the other around Victoria.

His expression grew more and more tormented. He instinctively pulled Cole into a tight hug.

I took my chance. I turned and walked away.

Standing on a bustling Northwood City street, surrounded by the rush of people, my heart felt emptier than it ever had facing the vast, open sea alone. I was torn, hoping he would run after me and terrified that he would.

"Ava, stop."

My heart seized. I froze.

It was Victoria.