### Chapter 1

At the engagement banquet, Dustin Delgado learned that his childhood sweetheart was being matched with his crippled arch-rival.

His expression shifted in an instant. He cornered me, demanding I hand over the Blood Jade Bracelet—the Delgado family heirloom that marked me as the young mistress of the house—and give it to Gabriella Hughes. His tone left no room for argument.

"Hurry up! There's no way Gabriella is marrying that impotent cripple. I won't let him ruin her life."

I had loved Dustin Delgado for ten years. I'd lived under the Delgado roof for five. I'd thrown myself in front of a car for him while carrying his child. The baby didn't survive. I nearly didn't either. And still, somehow, I'd clawed my way to this moment.

Everyone was watching, waiting for me to make a scene—waiting for me to become the punchline.

But looking at the man in front of me, so familiar and yet so foreign, his face cold enough to freeze my blood, I felt something inside me go quiet. The deepest grief is a heart that's already dead.

I smiled.

"Fine. She can have it."

Surprise flickered across Dustin's face. Gabriella, draped in her wedding gown and nestled in his arms, stopped crying on cue. A saccharine smile bloomed across her lips as she extended her hand toward me.

With perfect calm, I unclasped the Blood Jade Bracelet and slid it onto her pale, slender wrist.

Only then did Dustin spare me a satisfied glance.

"Delia Sullivan. Know your place. You owe me."

I looked down at my bare wrist and smiled in silence. But I never owed you anything.

That same day, Dustin's private jet carried him and Gabriella to Dubai for their advance "honeymoon."

He assumed I would do what I always did—stand in place and wait for him to come home.

What Dustin didn't know was that shortly after he left, his crippled arch-rival came knocking.

"I'm the kind of man who never lets a slight go unanswered. Delgado stole my fiancée. I'm not about to swallow that quietly."

"Mr. Simmons, what exactly are you suggesting?"

Les Simmons sat in his wheelchair, but his bearing was anything but diminished. He looked like a leopard lying in wait, eyes half-lidded with lazy menace.

"Miss Sullivan, how would you feel about making a trip to City Hall with me?"

I glanced at the photo blowing up across Harbor City's elite circles—the two of them locked in a romantic hot-air-balloon kiss. Without a second's hesitation, I grabbed my documents and headed straight for City Hall with Les Simmons.

It wasn't until I saw our faces printed side by side on the marriage certificate that it finally sank in.

I was married.

And my husband wasn't Dustin Delgado, the man I'd loved for years. He was the man Dustin hated most in the world.

"Now that we've signed the papers, you're my wife." Les tapped his slender fingers lightly against my wrist, his smile dangerously charming. "When are you coming home with me?"

"Give me ten days. I need to wrap things up here."

He hummed in acknowledgment. "Then we'll hold the wedding in ten days. It's tight, but I promise you—I won't cut a single corner."

He gestured for me to lean down.

Then he pinned a platinum diamond brooch to my chest, its center set with a Colombian emerald that caught the light like a living thing.

"This was my great-grandmother's hat pin. It protected my family for generations. Now it belongs to you."

When he finished, I caught sight of something beneath that rakish, devil-may-care face of his—the tips of his ears had turned a deep, burning red.

I couldn't help tracing my fingers over the brooch. A soft laugh escaped me. "I'll treasure it."

A week into the "honeymoon," Dustin Delgado finally remembered I existed.

"Landing tonight. Get everything ready—I want a Delgado Group dinner hosted this evening."

A phone call jolted me awake that morning. Not a single word asking how I'd been holding up these past days, trapped indoors while the entire social elite of Harbor City passed around my humiliation like party favors.

The same imperious tone. As if nothing had happened.

But it wasn't that nothing had happened. It was that my feelings, my needs, my entire existence weighed no more than a speck of dust in his mind.

Meanwhile, his "honeymoon" with Gabriella had been broadcasting in real time across Harbor City's upper circles for days.

I'd seen the photos. The two of them kissing passionately before sunrise at the Burj Khalifa. Tangled together in the thermal pools of Pamukkale. Exchanging solemn vows in a Spanish castle.

Every single one of those destinations had been on my dream honeymoon list. He'd made them all come true—just not with me.

"Answer me, Delia Sullivan. Are you deaf?"

When I didn't respond, Dustin's voice frosted over.

I pulled myself back.

"Got it." This is the last time, anyway. "I'll have everything ready."

For five years, every single one of Dustin Delgado's events had been my handiwork. Minimum budget, maximum spectacle—making him look like a king every time.

Dustin was silent for a beat.

"Remember. Without me, you're nothing but an orphan."

The line went dead.

What he didn't know was that in three days, my husband would be coming for me with the highest honors imaginable. I would become the youngest matriarch of the Simmons family—the wealthiest clan in the capital.

I worked through the day without stopping, and by the time I straightened up, it was already seven-thirty.

The Delgado dinner began right on schedule. The venue glittered with the city's elite.

Between the clinking of glasses, Gabriella appeared on Dustin's arm, timed to perfection.

They wore matching silver couture. Gabriella's mermaid gown shimmered under the chandelier light like liquid mercury.

She made a deliberate show of tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, ensuring every pair of eyes in the room landed on the Blood Jade Bracelet circling her wrist.

Gasps and flattery rippled through the crowd in waves.

"That's the Delgado family heirloom, isn't it? A piece like that truly belongs on someone like Miss Hughes."

"Can you imagine? That gold-digging woman who dumped Mr. Delgado for a better offer actually thought she deserved the Blood Jade Bracelet? Thought she could be the Delgado family's young mistress? What a joke."

Contemptuous stares cut toward me in the corner like a volley of knives.

Seven years ago, I'd steeled myself and broken things off with Dustin, then turned around and gotten engaged to his uncle, Marvin Delgado.

Within two years, Dustin had crushed Marvin and seized the position of heir for himself. The very first thing he did was bring me back to his side, over the objections of the entire Delgado family.

For five years I'd stood beside him, pulling the Delgado Group back from the brink of collapse with my own hands, pushing it higher than it had ever been.

And now, in their mouths, I was nothing but a vain, scheming social climber.

I didn't argue. I sat quietly in my seat, sipping the water in my glass.

Dustin didn't say a single word in my defense.

He moved through the crowd with a champagne flute, making small talk, shaking hands. Every now and then his gaze drifted over and landed on me.

Once Gabriella had soaked up every last drop of adoration, she sauntered over on her narrow waist, stopping in front of me.

Her red lips curved. Her eyes locked onto the ruby earrings dangling from my ears.

"Delia, darling, the bracelet is already mine. Don't you think those earrings don't really belong on you anymore either?"

Those earrings. Dustin had traded a deal worth over a hundred million dollars to acquire them, just so they'd match the Blood Jade Bracelet. A gift for me.

A malicious smile slid across Gabriella's face, and she reached for my ear.

I raised my hand on instinct to block her. I hadn't even touched her when she let out a theatrical yelp and crumpled to the ground.

When she stood back up, a red scrape marked her palm where it had grazed the stone floor.

She whimpered, her cry pitched high and piercing.

"It hurts... I just wanted to borrow them for a look. Why did you push me, Delia?"

I saw Dustin turn. The hum of the banquet hall died in the same instant his expression darkened.

He strode over, swept Gabriella into his arms, and stared at the red mark on her palm. Then he whipped his head toward me and roared.

"Who gave you permission to touch her?"

He had no intention of hearing a single word from me. Every syllable dripped with anguish for her and fury at me.

I looked at this man—the man I'd loved for ten years, the man I'd lost everything for—and a vicious cramp seized my stomach.

I closed my eyes and forced the tears back down by sheer will.

When I opened them again, there was no fight. No tantrum.

I raised my hand to my ear and gripped the ruby earrings.

Under the stunned gaze of every person in that room, I ripped them free. The posts tore through my earlobes. Beads of blood rolled down my neck.

Without a flicker of expression, I pressed the earrings into Gabriella's hand.

"You're right. I was out of line. Since you're the future mistress of the Delgado family, these were always meant to be yours."

### Chapter 2

Dustin's pupils contracted sharply.

Gabriella took the earrings and froze, so stunned she forgot to cry.

I looked at Dustin. There was nothing left in my eyes.

"I've apologized. I've handed everything over. Can I go now?"

His thin lips pressed into a hard line, the crease between his brows deepening. He opened his mouth to speak, but Gabriella let out a soft whimper and collapsed against him. "When Delia pushed me earlier, I twisted my ankle. I think it's swelling up."

Dustin scooped her into his arms immediately, setting her down in a chair with exaggerated care.

Then he crouched at her feet and, with hands that had signed hundred-million-dollar contracts, gently massaged her ankle.

The motion was practiced. Like he'd done it a thousand times before.

The music swelled again. Clinking glasses and polished laughter filled the room, the party resuming as if nothing had happened.

I turned and headed upstairs, leaving behind a world of champagne and glitter that had nothing to do with me.

Dustin's gaze stayed fixed on my retreating back, trailing me until I disappeared into the stairwell.

Back in my room, I dug out the stomach medication the doctor had prescribed and washed it down with cold water.

The moment it hit, my stomach seized.

I gritted my teeth through the pain and made it to the bathroom, dabbing an alcohol swab against my still-bleeding earlobes.

The mirror reflected a face drained of all color.

The face of someone who'd finally dropped the mask of strength and had nothing left underneath.

Love, no matter how deep, no matter how consuming, had an expiration date. Even love that had lasted ten years.

I was so exhausted that I sank into a heavy, dreamless dark.

Except it wasn't dreamless.

In the dream, I went back nine years, to a time when Dustin and I were still in love.

The Delgado Group had been hemorrhaging money back then. Dustin, branded an illegitimate son, was tormented at every turn, crushed under Marvin's thumb, practically kept under house arrest. Every day was a fight to survive.

It was my nineteenth birthday. He'd scaled the wall in the dead of night, risking everything just to see me.

He had a souffl tucked against his chest, the skin beneath it scalded red.

When he placed it in my hands, it was still warm.

I cried from the ache of it. "Why would you do something so stupid? If I wanted one, I could buy it myself."

"And you shouldn't have snuck out for me. If Marvin finds out, things will only get worse for you."

He held my hands, his eyes rimmed with red.

"Delia, this is all I can give you right now. But I swear, one day I'll make sure every single day of your life is happy."

I ate that souffl through my tears.

It was soft and fragrant. The best thing I'd ever tasted in my life.

Somewhere between sleep and waking, I felt fingers brushing across my forehead.

I curled tighter, murmuring through the discomfort. "Dustin, I want a souffl..."

I thought I was still dreaming. But when I opened my eyes, a tray sat on the nightstand.

On it was a beautiful souffl cake.

Chocolate, my favorite flavor. Cloud-soft, with a gentle bounce.

Dustin was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You're up? How did you let yourself get this thin? Anyone who didn't know better would think I'd been starving you."

He hadn't, technically. He'd never deprived me of food or clothes.

I stared at the cake, but I had no appetite at all.

It wasn't the cake I wanted anymore. Just like the man who'd brought it.

Why had he come all this way to deliver it? A lash of the whip, then a piece of candy?

"My stomach hurts. I can't eat."

Dustin reached out and pulled me into his arms.

My body went rigid. I tried to push away, but his arms only tightened.

His other hand pressed gently against my chest, radiating a familiar, searing warmth. "Don't move. Let me rub it for you. Whenever you felt sick before, this is how I'd make it better."

The pain was bad enough that I gave in, letting my head drop, letting him hold me.

"Back at the banquet, why did you stop fighting?"

His voice broke the silence without warning.

I lowered my gaze. My voice was flat, empty of anything.

"You're always telling me to know my place. I gave her the bracelet and the earrings. Shouldn't that make you happy?"

Something complicated flickered through Dustin's eyes.

He gripped my chin and turned my face toward his.

A wave of perfume hit me instantly, a scent that wasn't mine, so cloying it sent my stomach lurching.

"Gabriella and her father did me a huge favor. I owe it to her to take care of her."

"But as long as you stay by my side and behave, diamonds, mansions, I won't short you on any of it."

"You've been good lately. I'll stay tonight. Consider it your reward."

The tone of a man tossing scraps. As if I were nothing more than a canary in a gilded cage.

Before I could react, his scorching breath pressed down against me.

Then a frail voice drifted in from the hallway.

"Dustin, my head is so dizzy. Are you in there?"

The words had barely landed before the door swung open.

Gabriella's face went white the instant she saw us tangled together on the bed. "What... what are you two doing?"

Dustin's arms released me in a heartbeat.

Without a shred of hesitation, he shoved me away.

I hit the floor before I could brace myself, the impact sending the room spinning.

"Delia's stomach was hurting. I was just... helping her."

The excuse tumbled out of him like a reflex.

As if we'd been caught doing something shameful.

Gabriella's eyes were already glistening, her expression pitiful as she drifted closer and looked down at me.

"But Delia's always been perfectly healthy. I've never heard of her having any kind of illness."

Dustin's eyes narrowed to slits.

When he looked at me again, suspicion had pooled in every line of his face.

"Delia. Are you actually sick, or is this another performance for my benefit?"

I picked myself up off the floor. My lips parted, but before a single word could form, his voice cut through like a blade.

"Same as always. You never change. God, you're good at faking it. Disgusting."

I'd stopped expecting anything from him a long time ago.

But hearing those words, my heart, already sunk to the deepest trench, still clenched tight.

### Chapter 3

Five years ago, when Dustin took me back to his side, I tried to explain why I'd ended things between us.

He shook his head. "No need to explain. None of it matters."

Back then, I thought he understood me.

Now I realized he had never believed me. Not once.

"Dustin, just let it go. Delia's always been the best at putting on an act for men. How else do you think she tricked your uncle into falling head over heels for her back then?"

Gabriella laced her fingers through his, stealing a glance at me with undisguised triumph in her eyes.

Dustin stared at me, his gaze heavy with disappointment so deep it bordered on disgust.

"There's a music reception tomorrow evening. I'm taking Gabriella. She's been learning the violin." He looked down at me, each word deliberate and final. "Give her the Kristin."

I stared at him in disbelief.

That Kristin violin. Five years ago, when I came back to him, he'd bid hundreds of millions for it at auction without blinking. A priceless antique, the only one of its kind in the entire world.

I'd treated it as the token of our second beginning. No one was allowed to touch it.

A distant cousin of his had once snuck it out to play with. She was banished from the Delgado estate that same day.

Dustin had shielded me fiercely back then, issuing a warning to the entire family: what belonged to me was untouchable.

And now he wanted me to hand it over to Gabriella with my own two hands.

My heart felt like it was being crushed in a giant fist, squeezed until I couldn't breathe.

I looked at the expression on his face. There was no room for negotiation.

Slowly, I nodded.

"Fine. I'll give it to her."

Dustin held my gaze for one long moment, then wrapped his arm around Gabriella and walked out.

The walls of the villa were well insulated, but they couldn't quite muffle the broken sobs and gasping from the room next door.

I wasn't sad. My stomach just hurt worse than before.

Curled up on the bed, I watched my phone screen light up. A message from Les.

"Delia, everything is ready. I'll come for you in two days, right on schedule."

I clutched the cold phone and squeezed my eyes shut.

Two days until our wedding.

The next morning, I gave the violin to Gabriella.

She pulled it from the case immediately and picked up the bow.

A sound so shrill it made the scalp crawl tore through the entire villa.

Then she produced a pair of scissors and, without a second's hesitation, snipped the custom-made strings one by one. Strings I'd had a master luthier craft specifically for that instrument.

"These strings are awful. Can't even get a single tune out of them."

Gabriella fixed me with a taunting stare, a vicious little smile curling her lips.

I didn't react. I turned and walked away.

Passing the study, I heard Dustin's voice inside, talking with one of his cousins.

"I heard you gave Gabriella the Blood Jade Bracelet and the earrings. And now you've made Delia hand over that violin too?"

"Delia lost her child trying to save you. Her parents died pulling you out of that fire. You treat her like this and you're not afraid she'll leave?"

I stopped. My feet rooted to the floor.

Dustin's voice drifted out, careless and unbothered.

"Leave? She's an orphan. Where would she go?"

"Besides, I need her to swallow that pathetic scrap of pride and understand who's in charge here. Once she falls in line and stops making things difficult for Gabriella, I'll keep her around."

His cousin sighed.

"But aren't you worried she'll give up on you for good?"

Dustin let out a laugh, a single scoff dripping with contempt, as though he'd just heard the most ridiculous joke.

"She's nothing but a cash grab her parents groomed from birth. Whoever has money, that's who she clings to."

"Why else would she have dumped me back then and gone crawling to that bastard Marvin?"

"Now that the Delgado empire is in my hands, she's wrapped around me like a parasite, desperate to never let go. You really think she'd walk away from this?"

His cousin pressed: "But what happened back then... won't you at least hear her side of it?"

Dustin's answer was a cruel smile. Three words, cold as a blade:

"She's not worth it."

My entire body plunged into ice. I couldn't stop shaking.

So he had never understood me.

All this time, he believed I'd abandoned him for power and money. And crawled back for the same reason.

So he gave me a place beside him while grinding my dignity into the dirt.

Five years ago, Dustin buried my parents, set aside old grudges, and told me he'd give me a home.

But my parents had burned alive pulling him out of that fire.

And I had spent two years undercover at Marvin's side, stealing evidence of his corporate espionage and backroom deals, then anonymously fed it all to Dustin.

That was the only reason Dustin had been able to take Marvin down and claim his place as heir.

The one who wasn't worth it wasn't me. It was Dustin Delgado.

My nails dug into my palms. Blood dripped down, one drop at a time. I didn't feel a thing.

I took two steps back and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.

"Young Madam!"

From deep in the corridor, an old voice called after me.