Erased Memories, A Second Chance At Love

They found me days after the avalanche, a bloody canvas against the stark white snow. When my fiancé, Gabriel, finally arrived, I thought I was saved.

But he wasn't there to rescue me; he was there to blame me. His mistress, Candace, clung to his arm with a tiny scratch while my leg was a mangled, frostbitten wreck.

"What in God's name did you do?" he spat, his voice like ice.

Back at the hospital, Candace and her therapist brother convinced him my injuries were minor. They secretly withheld my treatment, laughing at my silent agony while Gabriel accused me of faking it all for attention.

He called off our engagement, reminding me I was just a burden he was forced to care for after my parents died saving his family. His disgust and her lies finally broke me.

So I made a deal with a goddess. I threw myself from the hospital balcony, trading my love and all my memories of him for a new life.

When I opened my eyes again, the man who had destroyed me was a complete stranger.

Chapter 1

Briana Bond POV:

They found me days later, a bloody canvas against the stark white snow, but the man who rushed to me wasn't there to rescue; he was there to blame.

The helicopter blades roared overhead, churning the already biting wind into a furious gale. My body was a screaming protest, every nerve ending ablaze with pain. I barely registered the faces of the rescue team, their movements a blur through the haze of agony and exhaustion. All I knew was the cold seeping into my bones, a cold that had been my only companion for what felt like an eternity.

Then, a familiar silhouette detached itself from the storm-tossed chaos. Gabriel. He moved with the desperate urgency of a man who had lost something precious. My heart, a bruised and battered thing, fluttered with a faint, foolish hope. He was here. He found me.

But the hope died a swift, brutal death when I saw her. Candace. She clung to his arm, a picture of delicate fragility against the harsh backdrop of the mountain. Her head was bandaged, just a small, neat white patch. A stark contrast to the mangled mess that was my leg. The blood on her bandage was probably just a smudge. The blood on my leg had stained the pristine snow crimson for miles.

Gabriel' s eyes, usually a calm, intelligent stormy grey, were now alight with a chilling fury. He didn' t reach for me. He didn' t even see me, not really. He saw an inconvenience, a problem, a source of endless trouble. His gaze flickered to Candace, then back to my prone, broken form, and his face twisted into a mask of disgust.

"Briana," he bit out, his voice sharp against the howl of the wind. "What in God's name did you do?"

My mind, dulled by pain, struggled to form a coherent thought. I blinked,