The Girl Who Got Played Chapter 1

In the third year of my marriage to my arch-nemesis, a new intern accidentally spilled water all over the marriage certificate he kept on his desk.

Panicked, she rushed it to the city records office to get a replacement.

But the clerk told her the certificate was a fake.

I went back to the office to confront my husband, Liam.

Only to find him pressing the intern against the door, kissing her.

“I fought with her for five years,” he murmured, “but I’ve been secretly in love with you for ten.”

“Our real marriage certificate? I have it locked away safely in a vault.”

Even when the intern pushed me down the stairs and my head split open, Liam just stood there, watching coldly. He pulled the intern into his arms, shielding her from the sight.

“Don’t look,” he whispered. “You can’t stand the sight of blood.”

Later, due to a delay in treatment, I suffered a cognitive impairment.

When I opened my eyes again, my memory was stuck in the year I hated him the most.

* * *

Two days after the surgery, Liam finally showed up.

I was sitting up in my hospital bed, joking with a young nurse. The moment he walked in, my smile vanished.

“What are you doing here?”

Liam’s gaze lingered for a moment on the bandage on my forehead. He sneered. “Katey’s been worried sick about you for two days, and you’re just in here playing sick?”

Before I could process his words, he strode forward and yanked on my IV line.

The needle was ripped from my vein. I sucked in a sharp breath of pain. Blood spurted from the back of my hand, and the nurse next to me shrieked, rushing to apply pressure.

When my senses returned, I slapped Liam hard across the face.

“Did you die a violent death in a past life? Is that why you’re so full of rage?” I spat. “Are you blind? Can’t you see the damn gauze on the back of my head?”

Back when we were new hires, Liam and I were at our worst. He called me rigid and boring; I said he was worse than a dog. Our greetings consisted of creative insults aimed at each other's parents.

The slap snapped Liam’s head to the side. He stared at me, completely stunned. He was speechless, but I wasn’t finished. Once the bleeding stopped, I glared at him, ready to have security throw him out.

But the nurse’s next words froze me in place.

“Mr. Hayes, could you please sign here on the line for Ms. Sterling’s next of kin?”

Before Liam could even react, I snatched the clipboard from her. “What are you talking about? What makes him my family?”

I trailed off, my eyes fixed on the form.

On the line labeled “Spouse,” his name was written in clear, block letters: LIAM HAYES.

Liam saw my stunned expression and rubbed his temples. “I know you’re angry with Katey, but her mother is sick. Her dying wish is to see her daughter married.”

He sighed. “Katey and I grew up together. I was the most logical choice. I’ll divorce her later.”

My movements were stiff as I fumbled for my phone. The contact pinned to the top of my messages, labeled “Hubby,” had Liam’s unchanging profile picture. In our company’s group chat, the new intern, Katey, had just posted, her profile picture a matching half of a couple’s photo with Liam.

【Getting married next month, everyone’s invited to our wedding!】

The photo she attached was deleted a second later, but not before I took a screenshot. It was a wedding photo. Liam was looking at her with such tenderness in his eyes.

The chat was exploding with shocked messages, but I couldn’t bring myself to read them. My own photo album didn’t have a single picture of me and Liam together.

The doctor had told me the impact had caused some side effects. I had lost the last five years of my memory.

I was still reeling from the fact that I was apparently married to my sworn enemy, and now I was staring at his wedding photos with someone else.

Just then, a new message popped up. It was from my friend who works at the records office.

“You asked me to look up Liam Hayes. He registered a marriage a year ago.”

“The spouse’s name is Katey Evans.”

“That fake certificate you brought in didn’t have an official seal. It’s not legally valid.”

That last sentence felt like a knife twisting in my gut. My head throbbed, a chaotic mess of feelings I couldn’t place. A wave of residual emotion I didn’t understand washed over me, making my nose sting.

My silence seemed like an admission to Liam. He frowned and reached for me. “You…” He looked at a loss for words.

Of course. We had fought for so long, always at each other’s throats. The idea of me falling for him was utterly absurd.

I let out a slow breath. When I looked up again, my face was calm.

“Don’t you know office romances are against company policy?”