The Second Chance

She can’t remember the last five years...

Or the man who says he’s her husband.

Chuck Mikkelson knows Shana doesn’t remember him...or that she wanted a divorce. But now she’s back in his home, and he vows to save their union at all costs. This may be the only chance he has to win back his wife. Will their rekindled passion be enough to convince her to stay when her memory returns?

USA TODAY bestselling author CATHERINE MANN has won numerous awards for her novels, including both a prestigious RITA® Award and an RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award. After years of moving around the country bringing up four children, Catherine has settled in her home state of South Carolina, where she’s active in animal rescue. For more information, visit her website, catherinemann.com.

Also by Catherine Mann

The Baby Claim

The Double Deal

The Love Child

The Twin Birthright

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Second Chance

Catherine Mann

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07690-6

THE SECOND CHANCE

© 2018 Catherine Mann

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my gifted and delightful editor, Stacy Boyd.

“Write to communicate to the hearts and minds of

others what’s burning inside … edit to let the fire

show through the smoke.” (Arthur Plotnik)

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Epilogue

Alaskan Oil Barons - Steele Mikkelson Family Tree

Extract

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

Shana had once thought Chuck was the love of her life.

She’d have bet their marriage would last forever.

But today, Shana Mikkelson had to accept that she and Chuck were finished.

Now she just wanted peace, but peace was in short supply as she threw her husband’s jeans into a suitcase on their bed. The musky scent of him wafted up from the denim, filling her every breath like a drug she could only quit cold turkey.

Her grief was too deep for tears. Truth be told, there weren’t any tears left to shed. She’d just about cried herself into dehydration over this man. She tugged open his dresser drawer, scooped out an armful of socks and strode over to the bed again to dump them into his open luggage.

She kept her eyes on her task and off the bed where they’d made love so often—although not as much lately. She definitely kept her gaze away from her handsome husband, his strong jaw jutting as he threw gear into his shaving kit. Too easily, she could be drawn into the sensual lure of the bristle on his face or the temptation to stroke his perpetually mussed sandy-brown hair. His headful of cowlicks refused to fall in line with the rest of his traditional good looks in a way that somehow made him all the more appealing.

He was like his home state of Alaska, majestic and untamed. Commanding the eye, and yet opaque as a dense forest trailing up a mountainside.

His footsteps sounded along the hardwood floor as he approached her. The storm in his green eyes broadcast his silent protest to her edict that he move out. He was leaving under duress. Well, tough. She’d given him chance after chance. He would cut back at work only to plunge into the office twice as hard again. He wasn’t interested in significant change, and over time, that had diluted their love until there was nothing left.

Even their marriage counselor wore a defeated look the last time they’d seen him together.

Every weekly appointment since then? Chuck had canceled. Citing work conflicts—his standard reason for missed dinner dates, too. She’d stopped trusting his word long before that. Trust was already difficult for her, after the way her father had betrayed her and her mother. She didn’t think she would ever recover from the blow of finding out her dad had a secret second family.

Chuck’s extended absences wore on her. Deeply.

Shana swallowed back the painful past and focused on the present. The heartbreaking present.

They were finally expecting a baby.

After failed fertility treatments and three miscarriages, she’d gotten pregnant by surprise. Very much by surprise as their sex life had been on the rocks along with their marriage.

Their communication was at an all-time low. She needed the controlled setting of their counselor’s office to tell her husband about the baby. But since Chuck was a consistent no-show, he still didn’t know.

Sitting alone in the counselor’s office earlier that day, she’d reached the end of her rope. She was done. She would tell him about the baby once their separation was official. She couldn’t afford another emotional breakdown, bad for the health of the baby when Shana was already in such a stressful environment.

She stormed into his closet, wrapped her arms around four of his suits and lifted them from the rack. “This should get you through work until we can set aside a time for you to pick up the rest of your things.”

She slammed the bulk of designer suits into his open case on the bed.

“Shana, I’m sorry for missing the appointment.” He paced barefoot, faded jeans hugging his muscular thighs, his long-sleeved tee stretching across his broad shoulders. His hair was still damp from the shower he’d taken after work. “You have to understand the business merger comes with extra hours. I’ve bowed out of as many things as I can.”

Since the Mikkelson matriarch had married the Steele patriarch, the two former rival oil families were merging their families’ companies into Alaska Oil Barons, Inc. The lengthy process had siblings from both sides making power grabs at a time when stockholders needed to see unity.

“And yet you’re still secluded in the study every night.”

They did nothing together except sleep and eat. No more days spent horseback riding, snowmobiling and traveling. And as much as she wanted to trust Chuck that it was only work and that things would change, she could only bury her head in the sand for so long before she smothered to death.

“I’m doing my best, Shana. Things will get better as the merger takes root.”

“So you keep saying.” She tossed a handful of silk ties into the suitcase. “Every deadline you give for this magical easing at work just gets pushed back. I feel like a fool for believing you.”

“Damn it, Shana, you’ve got to see the effort.” He forked his hand through his hair. “I even had my antisocial brother stand in for me at that wildlife preservation fund-raiser. There aren’t as many Mikkelsons as there are Steeles. And with Mom and Glenna both married to Steeles, their loyalties are split in a way mine aren’t. I’m a Mikkelson. Period.”

As was the baby he knew nothing about.

Thinking about raising their child alone made her heart and head ache. Chuck would want to be a part of the child’s life. She didn’t doubt that. She just wasn’t sure how much time he would make for the baby.

Her ability to trust him had been eroded on so many levels.

Resolve strengthened, she faced him. “It’s quite clear where your heart lies.”

“That’s not fair, Shana. These are extreme times. If I scale back too much, the Steele family could eclipse our vision and our power,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Their bed. Nearly four years ago, when they’d married and built their dream home in Anchorage, she’d decorated their bedroom with such romantic hope in each detail of the modern French provincial decor.

They’d spent a lot of hours in this room—making love, sharing dreams. Until the third miscarriage had taken too much of a toll on both of them.

“Then by all means, don’t let me hold you back. Dig in.” She closed his suitcase with a decisive click and spun away hard and fast.

Too fast. The room spun and she gripped the footboard of the bed to keep from stumbling.

“Shana?”

She blinked fast to clear the spots dancing in front of her eyes, to quell the nausea from her blossoming headache.

If she could just get Chuck to leave so she could lie down and breathe...

“Please. Go.” She pushed free the two words, a mammoth undertaking with her stress headache spiking.

Why was he walking so slowly? She saw his mouth moving, but nothing was coming out. That didn’t make sense. And then he tipped.

Except no.

The whole room tipped because...

Her hand slid from the bed on her way to the floor.

One

Thirty-six hours later

Until today, Charles “Chuck” Mikkelson had run out of ideas for a second chance with his wife. Admitting defeat had never been an option for him, professionally or personally.

But amnesia as a do-over with Shana was extreme, even for him.

Surely he’d heard the neurologist wrong. Chuck’s gut knotted. “Do you mean Shana is disoriented? Fuzzy on things like the time or date? Forgot what she had for dinner?”

After all, she’d suffered a minor aneurysm that had left her unconscious for just over thirty-six hours. The longest day and a half of his life. But finally, she was awake. Alive.

Two physicians occupied the secluded sitting area where Chuck had been brought after a staffer located him grabbing a bite in the cafeteria while a privately hired nurse sat with Shana. Chuck couldn’t believe his wife had actually woken up the one time he’d stepped away from her hospital room. The neurologist—Dr. Harris—sat beside Chuck. Another of Shana’s physicians stood at the window. Snow was coming down in thick sheets of white, as if the hospital sterility was outside as well as indoors.

“Shana is disoriented, but it’s more than that,” Dr. Harris explained slowly from the chrome-and-leather chair he’d pulled around to face Chuck. “You need to accept that she has lost her memory.”

Amnesia. The word still ricocheted around in Chuck’s brain. “She doesn’t know who she is?”

Dr. Harris closed the tablet that he’d used earlier to show the part of her brain that was affected. “Actually, she does know her name. She recalls details about herself. The memory loss focuses on more recent events.”

“How recent?” Chuck asked, unease creeping up his spine.

“She has the month correct. But five years prior.”

Five years ago? That meant... “She doesn’t remember anything about me.”

Much less about being married to him. There were some times between them lately he wouldn’t mind forgetting. But the thought of losing memories of the good times with Shana?

Unthinkable.

The two doctors exchanged somber looks before Shana’s other doctor took a seat in the other wingback. Dr. Gibson was young, but tops when it came to fertility specialists. It meant a lot to Chuck that the man had shown up to weigh in on Shana’s condition even though they weren’t trying for another baby.

“Chuck, I’m sorry to say, she does not remember you,” Dr. Gibson said in the quietly comforting tone he’d used during Chuck and Shana’s failed in vitro and three miscarriages. A phantom sucker punch to the gut wracked Chuck.

It had been bittersweet when Dr. Gibson had assisted in caring for Chuck’s stepsister two months ago, after she delivered twins in a car. Pretending nothing was wrong had been hard as hell for Chuck, and Shana hadn’t wanted his comfort.

“We were having trouble. Do you think this memory loss is more psychological than physical?”

He’d blamed himself repeatedly for this aneurysm. If they hadn’t been fighting, if intense emotions hadn’t raised her blood pressure, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

“There’s no question she’s had an aneurysm, and she’s incredibly lucky to have come through it so well. But that’s not to say there aren’t psychological aspects in play. The body and mind work in tandem.”

Staring at the tablet in the doctor’s hand, Chuck moved toward a planter, something to rest on. “How do we proceed from here? What do we tell her, and what’s her prognosis?”

“I realize that you need answers, but it’s too early to project the long term. For now, the counselor on staff here suggests we answer questions as she asks them, no additional information,” Dr. Harris warned. “A psychiatrist will be consulting. Things are still so very new.”

The obstetrician leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Let’s focus on the positives. Shana’s awake and physically fine. The baby’s heartbeat is strong. That’s news to celebrate.”

Chuck frowned, certain he’d misunderstood. Gibson had to be confusing patients after a late shift.

Dr. Harris straightened. “The baby?”

“What baby?” Chuck said precisely. Because no way could Shana be pregnant now of all times. The dark irony of that would be too much to entertain.

Dr. Gibson’s eyebrows shot up before he schooled his face back into an alarmingly blank expression. “She didn’t tell you about the pregnancy?”

Chuck shook his head slowly, stunned, half-certain there was an error. Fate couldn’t be this twisted.

“Shana is expecting,” he said baldly. “Two months along. And from your reaction, Chuck, she hadn’t told you yet.”

Chuck sifted through the hell of the past day and a half. There hadn’t been any need to call Dr. Gibson in on the case on a weekend. Chuck had said no to the possibility of pregnancy when the admission staff had asked.

Now he realized the truth of it. Shana had gotten pregnant without an in vitro procedure.

The reality slammed into Chuck like a ton of bricks. Against all odds, they were expecting a child.

Now.

He couldn’t even sort through the layers of “stunned” to feel anything but shock.

Chuck’s mind winged back to their attending the baptism for his sister Glenna’s daughter. He and Shana had actually spent a week getting along, drawn into their hopes for the future, loving their niece and considering adoption. Glenna clearly loved Fleur, no biological bond needed.

Emotions running high, Chuck and Shana had spent a week in bed together. A week that had apparently defied their odds and borne fruit. He had to be there for Shana and their child.

Dr. Harris opened his tablet again, scrolling through his notes. “While I wish we had known so we could have monitored the fetus, none of the medications she’s received should present a risk to the baby’s development. We’ll keep Shana another night for monitoring.”

Dr. Gibson said, “We’ll also do an ultrasound and start her on progesterone given her prior miscarriages.”

Chuck nodded, still reeling. A baby. She was two months along. She’d known and she hadn’t told him. Worse yet, she’d thrown him out without telling him she carried his child.

She’d probably realized that if she told him about the baby, it would have taken a force of nature to budge him from their house. He didn’t have the luxury of anger right now.

Dr. Gibson tilted his head, placing a hand on Chuck’s shoulder. “I realize this is difficult for you, too. You’ve both been waiting for this baby for so long, and these aren’t the circumstances anyone could have foreseen.” He gestured toward the door. “Perhaps seeing you will jog her memory.”

And therein lay his problem.

He didn’t want her to remember.

Because if she did?

Shana would walk, taking their baby with her.

* * *

Shana pushed herself up on the hospital bed, taking her time to be sure the room didn’t spin as it had the last time she’d tried. People were acting strange around her, and she wanted answers. Instead, she was stuck lying here alone with only a view of snow slamming down on the mountains.

Well, alone except for a nurse who’d been there since she’d woken up and hadn’t left her side, even when the doctors stopped by, doctors who’d been short of answers as to why she was here. Even her phone was missing and the remote control for the TV wasn’t working. The nurse said it would be fixed soon.

Shana touched her head, exploring her hairline. A small bandage was located just behind her ear. She’d been assured her long hair covered the shaved patch. The doctor had only told her she’d suffered a minor aneurysm, but that otherwise she was physically fine. Beyond that, they’d been cagey.

Thinking back, she tried to remember what had happened before she’d come to the hospital. The last thing she recalled was an argument with her mother over Shana’s refusal to reconcile with her father. Even thinking about the fight and her dad made her headache worse.

She knew avoidance when she heard it. Her work as a private detective had taught her all the signs. She also had a sixth sense for these things and trusted her gut.

Something was going on beyond what they’d told her.

Turning to the nurse, who was making updates on the dry-erase board in her room, Shana asked, “Excuse me? When will the doctor be back? I have questions.”

Being in limbo was scary. Her imagination was working overtime.

Just as the nurse opened her mouth to answer, a knock sounded and the door opened to admit a man. Not the doctor who’d been by to check her out when she’d woken. And even though it felt like a slew of staff had come through her room in the past half hour, she would have remembered this guy. He had an unforgettable face, movie-star quality in a rough-around-the-edges way. His light brown hair was just long enough to be mussed by a woman’s fingers, coarse hair that would rasp the skin.

A doctor? He didn’t have on a white coat. In fact, he was dressed more casually than any doctor she knew. He wore jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt that bore the wrinkles of someone who’d pulled a long shift. But his sea green eyes were what held her attention in an unbreakable grip. The colors shifted with the icy intensity of a winter sea.

What crazy thoughts to be having right now, but the tug of attraction made her feel normal on a day that was entirely too abnormal.

“I appreciate that you’re all being thorough, but I need to get in touch with my mother. I just want to call her, and no one will give me a phone.”

Or a remote control. Or a mirror. Or answers.

Okay, this was getting really weird.

Strangely, the nurse left the room. Physicians usually kept a nurse with them for exams. Although the door had been left open.

“Your mother is on her way. She should be here tomorrow.” He stopped by the bed, large hands grasping the bedrail.

Before she could help herself, she checked his ring finger and found...

A wedding band.

Disappointment cooled the attraction. So much for drooling over Mr. Cover Model. She pressed her fingers to her forehead. She should be focused on more serious matters rather than this sexy distraction.

“Which doctor are you?” She settled on the reasonable question, a thousand more zipping around in her fuzzy brain.

“You should rest,” he said evasively. “You’ve been through a lot. Your body needs to recharge.”

“Aren’t you a doctor?” She massaged her temple. “Or an occupational therapist? I can’t recall. There were so many people in the room when I woke up.”

“I’m not your doctor.”

A nervous skitter started up her spine, like something shifting behind a mist, just out of reach. “Remind me who you are?”

“My name is Chuck, and I’m going to get your doctor.” He backed up a step. “Things are...complicated.”

“Well, Chuck, I’ve had people checking me and asking questions, but no one has been answering mine.” Panic rose inside her. “Tell me what’s going on, or give me a phone to speak to my mother. Why are you keeping her from me?”

“Your mother is flying in.” He held up a calming, reassuring hand that somehow only made things worse. “She’s not available to talk yet.”

A pit formed deep in her belly. The walls bore down on her.

Nothing was as it seemed.

This place was starting to feel like a jail, except the private room full of high-tech equipment and flowers was far too posh for incarceration. She needed to get her life in order, call her mom, check in with her boss about her caseload and an upcoming court case she would be testifying in.

“Then I guess that leaves you or the doctor to tell me, because lying here waiting is most definitely stressing me out.” She swung her legs out from under the sheet.

The room spun.

Chuck rushed forward and clasped her arm. His touch was at once both steadying and unsettling.

Her gaze went back to that glinting wedding band. The spark of awareness made her feel ill. Married cheaters were the worst. Her father’s deceit had left a wake of devastation. The room started spinning again but in a different way from having wobbly legs.

Something was wrong here. Very wrong.

“I need to know what’s going on and if you won’t tell me—” she reached for the call button “—then I’m going to find someone who will.”

He released her arm. “Okay, we’ll talk. There’s no agenda here other than looking out for your health. Any question you have, I will answer honestly.”

Alarms went off in her mind. When people said words like honestly and truthfully, that usually meant they had something to lie about. “I want to know why everyone is acting so strange around me.”