Chapter 1

I wanted a baby.

Not a husband, not a boyfriend, just a child.

My mother' s marriage was a nightmare I watched growing up.

My own dates were a string of disappointments.

Men meant control, or heartbreak, or both.

I was Sarah Jenkins, almost thirty, a freelance graphic designer.

I lived in a small town in rural Oregon, where jobs were scarce and dreams even scarcer.

My plan was simple: find someone, a stranger, no strings attached.

One night, one chance.

Then I' d raise my child alone, on my terms.

A fierce storm hit the Cascade Mountains that fall.

Wind howled like a banshee, rain hammered my isolated rental cabin.

I was there to finish a big project, save up more money for my plan.

Then I saw it through the blurry window – a flicker of wreckage in the trees.

A small plane.

I pulled on my boots and raincoat, grabbed a flashlight.

He was near the crash, half-conscious, bleeding.

No wallet, no ID, nothing.

Just a man, broken by the storm.

I dragged him inside, to the warmth of my fire.

He woke up later, his eyes vacant.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Who am I?"

Amnesia.

I nursed him, cleaned his wounds, fed him soup.

He was a blank slate, no past, no demands.

He was just… there.

A strange sort of peace settled in the cabin, just us and the fading storm.

We talked, or rather, I talked. He listened.

An intimacy grew, quiet and unexpected.

He was gentle, lost. I was lonely, determined.

It happened. One night, then another.

My plan, twisted by fate.

Soon after he was strong enough to walk around the cabin on his own, I knew.

I was pregnant.

He wouldn' t remember. He couldn' t tie me to a life I didn' t want.

It felt like a solution, flawed but mine.