Fox: A Short Romance (Regretfully Yours)

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She pretends not to remember him. He pretends he’s always loved her.

Lucy knows her marriage is over when she overhears her husband tell a friend he’s never loved her. When confronted, Fox confirms the sad truth that he only married Lucy because he knocked her up and stayed after she lost the baby out of guilt.

Devastated—because she is hopelessly in love with her husband—Lucy agrees to a divorce, but before that can happen, she is severely hurt in a car accident.

She wakes up in the hospital to a frantic, attentive Fox, a performance Lucy assumes is for an audience. Annoyed, she pretends to have amnesia and is shocked when Fox, believing her, insists they’re happily married.

Nearly losing Lucy forces Fox to face the truth: the woman he loves is his wife. And he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her—even if it means lying, manipulating, and fighting dirty.

Tropes
💔 Marriage in Crisis
💔 Amnesia (she's faking it)
💔 Morally-gray MMC
💔 Betrayal & Grovel
💔 Novella

Trigger Warning: This story contains references to pregnancy loss (prior to the story's timeline) and a serious car accident with hospitalization.

Maya Alden is a #1 Amazon bestselling author. She's known for her angsty contemporary romances—where charmingly infuriating heroes always find a way to redeem themselves and steal your heart.

In Maya Alden’s emotionally charged novella, Fox: A Short Romance, readers are plunged headfirst into the messy, heartbreaking reality of a marriage on the brink of absolute collapse. Released in the summer of 2026, the story is a gripping exploration of betrayal, desperation, and the extraordinary lengths a person will go to in order to hold onto a love they almost threw away. Alden masterfully navigates the turbulent waters of a marriage in crisis, delivering a fast-paced narrative that relies heavily on angst, mutual deception, and a deeply satisfying journey of redemption for a morally gray male protagonist. The story centers on Lucy and Fox, a couple whose relationship is built on a remarkably fragile and painful foundation.

From the outside, Lucy and Fox might seem like a typical married couple, but the reality of their union is steeped in unspoken grief and one-sided devotion. Lucy is completely, hopelessly in love with her husband, having poured her heart into making their marriage work. However, the origins of their wedding were far from romantic. Fox only married Lucy because she unexpectedly became pregnant. Tragedy struck when Lucy lost the baby, a devastating event that should have severed their obligatory tie. Instead, Fox stayed with her, driven not by a profound, sweeping romance, but by a suffocating sense of guilt and duty. For a time, Lucy manages to convince herself that their marriage can survive, blinding herself to the cold detachment that dictates her husband’s actions.

The fragile illusion of their life together is violently shattered when Lucy accidentally overhears a private conversation. She listens in horror as Fox confesses to a friend that he has never actually loved her. When a devastated Lucy confronts him about the overheard confession, Fox does not offer comfort or backtrack; instead, he bluntly confirms the sad truth. He admits that his presence in their marriage is entirely rooted in obligation following the loss of their child. Utterly heartbroken and stripped of her dignity, Lucy realizes she cannot remain tethered to a man who only pities her. She bravely agrees to a divorce, ready to walk away from the ashes of her marriage and start entirely over.

However, fate intervenes before the divorce papers can be finalized. In a shocking twist, Lucy is involved in a severe car accident that leaves her badly injured and hospitalized. When she finally regains consciousness in a sterile hospital room, she expects to wake up to the cold, distant man she was preparing to leave. Instead, she opens her eyes to a frantic, hyper-attentive Fox hovering over her bed. He is playing the role of the devoted, terrified husband perfectly. Still nursing a deeply broken heart, Lucy assumes that this sudden display of affection is nothing more than a theatrical performance put on for the benefit of the hospital staff and onlookers.

Annoyed by his sudden change in demeanor and wanting to protect herself from further emotional manipulation, Lucy makes a split-second, incredibly reckless decision. She pretends to have amnesia. She looks at the husband who just broke her heart and acts as though she has absolutely no memory of him, their doomed marriage, or the devastating confession that led to their impending divorce. It is an act of self-preservation masked as a medical crisis, a way for Lucy to distance herself from the overwhelming pain of her reality.

But Fox’s reaction to her feigned memory loss is not what she expects. Instead of using her amnesia as an easy out to finally end their loveless marriage, Fox leans into her lie with a terrifying intensity. The sheer terror of nearly losing Lucy in the twisted metal of the car wreck served as a brutal, life-altering wake-up call for him. Faced with the very real possibility of her death, Fox is forced to confront a truth he had stubbornly buried: he actually is deeply in love with his wife. He realizes that his feelings for her transcend duty and guilt, and he is suddenly terrified of a life without her.

Believing her amnesia to be entirely real, Fox decides to rewrite their history. He insists to a bewildered Lucy that they are a blissfully happy couple, completely omitting the impending divorce and his cruel confession. He transforms into a morally gray, fiercely determined man who is willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to keep her. He doesn’t care if he has to lie, manipulate her fractured reality, or fight dirty; his only goal is to make her fall in love with him all over again, this time without the shadow of obligation hanging over them.

This sets the stage for a brilliantly tense and emotionally complex cat-and-mouse game. Lucy is forced to maintain her facade, silently watching as the husband she always wanted desperately tries to win her affection. She is treated to the romance, the devotion, and the passion she had craved for years, but it is all built on a foundation of mutual deception. Fox’s elaborate groveling is intense and manipulative, yet it is undeniably rooted in a genuine, desperate love. The novella builds toward an inevitable, explosive confrontation where the layers of lies must eventually be peeled back, forcing both characters to face the raw, unvarnished truth of their relationship in order to truly find their way back to each other.