The Dead Fiancé's Return: Too Late, She's His Uncle's Wife Now novel Chapter 7

I woke to the sound of heated voices arguing outside my hospital room.

Without warning, the door flew open.

Ronan burst in, still wearing his wrinkled wedding suit, looking like he hadn’t slept in days.

In his trembling hand was a paper charm that had been meticulously pieced back together with tape. His eyes brimmed with emotion as they met mine. “Anya, my memory’s returned. I remember everything.”

“I’m so sorry,” his voice cracked. “This was all my fault. You’ve been through hell because of me. But I’m back now, and I swear I’ll never leave your side again.”

My gaze drifted from his face to the charm in his hand.

That charm was from five years ago, when he lay supposedly dying after the accident.

Despite my own injuries, I had dragged myself up the treacherous path to Paro Taktsang–Tiger’s Nest Monastery–clinging to steep cliff faces in Bhutan. For two grueling hours, I’d climbed endless stairs carved into the mountainside, desperate to reach the Buddhist master who could bless a charm that might save Ronan’s life.

I’d collapsed on that mountain path, the precious charm clutched in my bloodied hands, nearly dying from exhaustion and my own wounds.

Yet he had “died” anyway, and in that video, he’d torn the sacred charm to confetti, laughing at my devotion as if it were the punchline to a joke.

How touching that he’d taped it back together now.

Paper can be mended. Trust, once shattered, cannot.

“Drop the act, Ronan.”

“I’ve known you weren’t amnesiac from the beginning.”

“I found out the day you faked your death five years ago.”

His expression froze, morphing from tender devotion to naked panic as he reached for my hand.

Seeing my newly reattached finger, he pulled back abruptly.

He raked his fingers through his hair, his voice breaking with desperation. “So that’s it? You married my

Chapter 7

uncle just to get back at me? This whole thing was some elaborate revenge plot?”

“I’m not you,” I said, meeting his gaze directly. “I genuinely fell in love with Calix.”

Ronan left looking like a man whose world had collapsed.

I thought I’d made myself perfectly clear, but a week later as I was being discharged, I found him waiting at the hospital entrance.

He had clearly been there for hours. Spotting me, he rushed forward eagerly, but before he could even touch me, Calix shoved him back with enough force to send him sprawling.

Scrambling to his feet, Ronan’s eyes blazed with fury. “You calculating bastard! You were the one who sent Anya that video five years ago. You orchestrated this whole thing!”