The Forgotten Billionaire (Happiness Ever After #3)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

CLOVER

The world comes back in fragments.

First, the chemical bite of smelling salts.

Second, strong hands cradling my head, tilting my face up.

Not a stranger. Not the person who sends the packages. No, these hands are gentle.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

I can survive anything for five seconds.

Third, the cool breeze of an early fall night.

Fourth, a voice. Deep. Urgent. “Come on. Open your eyes.”

I obey that rough command.

He’s leaning over me—tall, dark-haired. Light blue eyes locked on mine with an intensity that steals what’s left of my breath. This close, I can see the scar on his temple. The lines around his eyes. The way his jaw clenches like he’s holding something back.

Oh God.

“Am I dead?” I rasp.

Valen’s laughter is unexpected but warm—familiar. “No, Honeybee. You just passed out.”

Air lodges painfully in my throat.

I’m definitely dead.

Fourteen years of hiding. Fourteen years behind deadbolts and bulletproof glass and never allowing anyone to get too close.

And all it took was one look from Valen Stone for all my careful safety, my cautious discretion, all that control, to fail. None of it saved me from collapsing under his stare.

“Honeybee?” my best friend Madi asks. “Where the heck did that come from?”

Valen frowns. “Beats the hell out of me. You good, lady?” He stares at me like he’s never seen me before, like I’m a complete stranger, as he backs away.

My heart breaks all over again.

Honeybee.

“Valen?”

Except he’s watching me like I vomited on his shoes. Like that word—Honeybee—came out of his mouth without his permission and now he doesn’t know what to do with it.

“He doesn’t know that he’s her Valen,” someone grumbles.

He doesn’t know he’s my Valen?

I can’t breathe. I can’t think. Because twenty years ago, he called me Honeybee every single day. It was our word—my name.

How is Valen here?

“Clover!” Madi’s voice cuts through the haze, and reality slams into me.

I’m lying on a stretcher, but I don’t know where I am. I’m not in the medical tent the town fair provides—I’ve had the displeasure of meeting Mrs. Vincent there before. Everything’s fuzzy, and my eyes won’t focus.

Maybe I’m in a medical van?

It’s too nice to be an ambulance. It’s private. Professional. The kind of setup that screams money and preparation.

The kind of setup a stalker in one of my novels would have, but with more details than I could have dreamed up on my own.

Can I take pictures of this thing to refer back to later?

I bet Rip would—

I search for Rip, my assigned bodyguard for the day, but even with blurry eyes, I can tell he’s nowhere to be found.

“What—” My voice comes out wrecked. Like the morning after hardcore drinking and not enough water. “What happened?”

And why won’t Valen look at me?

Madi shoves him aside and grips my shoulders. “Oh my God, you scared us to death.”

My lungs burn. They scream with the need for air.

“You fainted.” Elle appears next to Madi, her red hair wild and her face drawn tight into a frown.

“We’re at the fair, remember? Near the food vendors?

Everything was fine until you saw—” She glares at Valen, who’s backed himself against the side of the van like he’s afraid to get too close. “You saw him and just…dropped.”

Right. The town fair. Not my stalker.

The memories crash back in violent waves.

Music. Laughter. Hordes of fairgoers. The smell of fried dough. I’d been arguing with Greyson about something stupid—trying not to think about the new package Rip found on my back porch this morning. The one with the note that said, The Deadly Vow of the Haunted Angel.

The tiny heart monitor attached to me pings loudly as the next memory clobbers me upside the head.

Then there was Valen.

He walked toward us while scanning the crowd with the focused intensity of someone trained to spot threats.

Valen Stone.

Older. Broader. Like someone had taken the boy I knew and carved him into a man made from granite and shadows.

But it was his eyes that pushed me over the proverbial edge into literal unconsciousness.

They’re blue, like a cloudless summer sky. Those eyes used to watch me talk to bees while simultaneously absorbing my fears—it was the only time I felt safe.

Today, he looked right at me.

Right through me.

Like I was nothing.

And then—darkness.

Madi squeezes my hand. “He carried you over here.”

My gaze snaps to Valen. He’s inching away from us—from me, hands shoved deep into his pockets while his jaw works through whatever he’s unwilling to say.

He carried me.

Those hands—the ones that used to hold mine while we hid—lifted me when I fell.

And now he’s pretending as though he has no idea who I am.

I’ll survive this. It’ll hurt like a bitch. But I will. I always do.

“Roman, you’d better have a really good explanation for this.” Braxton shoves his way through my friends to get to the van, trying to get his hands on Madi, who’s wrapping herself around me like a protective shield.

I must be in shock because I don’t respond to any of them. I don’t scream at Valen to tell me where he’s been. I just…stare.

“Get him out of here, Roman,” Grey snaps. He’s the one who hired Roman’s company and my bodyguard, Rip. “Let us get Clover home, and then we can talk. But to be clear, this feels like an ambush, and I’m pissed.”

“It’s not,” Roman says with a hint of vulnerability that pierces my brain fog. “It’s family. Valen was supposed to arrive tomorrow morning.”

Family. Valen has four cousins that I know of. Is Roman his cousin Ro?

“Clove? Are you okay?” Grey keeps his voice low.

“How? How?” My mouth isn’t working properly.

“We should get everyone home,” Braxton says. “We’ve been out here too long without guards close by. With Riley on the loose…”

Grey grunts, then nods. “You’re right.”

Riley.

Savvy’s ex is out there somewhere, and he’s dangerous.

Is he my stalker too?

“Clover?” Madi tries again, and I do my best to focus on her.

Where did Valen go?

“Let’s take her back to the inn,” Braxton says. “I’ll see what info I can get from Madi, and then we’ll get a doctor or…someone to talk to her.”

Greyson moves toward me in slow motion with his hands raised. “Clover? I’m going to lift you out of here, okay?”

My mouth moves, but no sound comes out.

“Sav?” Grey calls.

Braxton backs away, and Greyson leans out of the van.

“Savvy?” Grey’s tone goes sharp, panicked.

My fingers tap a familiar rhythm against my thigh. Thumb, forefinger, middle, ring, pinkie, repeat.

Grey pushes to the back of the van. “Where the fuck is Savvy?”

Everything stops.

Even my silent counting, my breaths, the endless thoughts that run on a loop inside my head.

Madi’s gaze whips toward the doors. “She was just—”

No.

Not Savvy. Not after everything with her ex. Not after—

My hands are shaking. Everything is shaking.

“Everyone, stay calm.” Roman’s voice cuts through the rising panic like a blade. He holds his hand to his ear, then says, “Get back here. Firefly’s missing. I repeat, Firefly is missing.”

Firefly.

Savvy.

He must be speaking to the rest of his team. Then he swings out the doors and climbs to the top of the van, his boots thumping heavily as he walks on the roof.

I rock in place. They have to find Savvy.

People and time blur around me, but my mind is frozen, my body unable to do anything except sway to the noise inside my head.

“I’ve got her!” It’s Valen’s voice. It’s aged, but it’s still so familiar I’d know it anywhere. He stands just outside the rear doors, focused on his phone. “Her phone is moving on the other side of the fairgrounds.”

They cluster around Valen as I rock, rock, rock. “She’s here.” He spins in place, then lifts his head and points. “She’s headed that way.”

Grey doesn’t wait for any more information as he and Roman take off running.

My chest loosens its grip on my lungs to the count of five.

See? Everything ends eventually. They’ll find her.

“Everyone’s on edge,” Valen says. His gaze flicks to me, holding for a second too long. “Braxton, Madi’s team will get you to your inn. Clover—”

“She’ll stay with us.” Braxton appears in the doorway, tall and solid. “We’re set up in the private quarters. I want to keep everyone together until we figure out what’s going on.”

“Good.” Valen’s professional mask is firmly in place, but there’s something in his eyes—uncertainty? Confusion? Whatever it is, he can’t quite hide it from me. “Miss Danforth, you should—”

Miss Danforth.

It strikes like a slap.

“Why—why are you doing this? You called me Honeybee.” The words I’ve been dying to ask finally break free.

Silence descends.

“I—” He lifts his right hand to his temple—to the scar there—and rubs like it aches. “I don’t— It just…came out.”

“You say that like you don’t know me.” My voice shakes, but I can’t stop now. I can’t count my way out of this.

Pain flickers behind his eyes. I know that look well. I spent my childhood memorizing all his fears, wishes, and dreams.

“I don’t remember you,” he says.

Can a soul wither?

“How? How is that possible?” The words burn on my tongue, but Madi’s hand tightens on my shoulder. A warning—not now, not here.

“Let’s get you somewhere safe,” Valen says, then clears his throat. Finally, some raw emotion clings to his words.

The boy I’ve loved my whole life, the man I’ve written to for fourteen years, doesn’t remember me.

One memory.

Two heartbreaks.

Three breaths.

I can survive this.

I just don’t know if I want to.