### 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.

### Chapter 4

It was Albert, the old butler who had served the Delgado family for forty years.

He had watched Dustin grow up and witnessed every twist and turn between us along the way.

Albert walked closer, shaking his head. "Ma'am, why won't you explain? You sacrificed so much for him back then."

I smiled at him. "Do you really think explaining would change anything? He and I should have ended seven years ago."

Albert's brow furrowed deeply.

"I'm afraid, ma'am, that one day he'll regret this."

"He has nothing to regret. The family empire, the woman he loves. He has everything he ever wanted."

I gave a faint smile.

Back then, I'd had no choice. For Dustin's sake, I could only agree to an engagement with Marvin, who was infatuated with me.

I never expected to piece things back together with Dustin after that.

But the moment he clawed his way to the top of the Delgado empire and personally came to bring me back, hope bloomed in my chest despite everything.

I told myself that the love we'd shared since we were eighteen could conquer anything. That even if misunderstanding carved a chasm between us, our feelings could bridge it.

But Dustin never once gave me the chance to explain.

I went back to the bedroom and dug out the old photo album I'd kept hidden away.

Every page was filled with us, young and in love.

Him smiling at me in the sunlight. Sneaking his hand into mine. Draping his jacket over my shoulders when I fell asleep.

I took the wedding portrait down from the wall.

Two weeks ago, I'd been smiling beside him, radiant, convinced I had the whole world.

I tossed the album and the portrait into the trash together.

Ten years of misplaced devotion. Time to let it go.

Footsteps sounded behind me. Gabriella walked in.

Her gaze drifted to the trash can, and a smile she couldn't quite hide tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Delia, I told Dustin I'm afraid of the dark, and he said your room is the biggest and brightest in the house. He wants me to move in here." She tilted her head. "So could you hurry up and pack? I need the space."

This sun-drenched suite held so many traces of my life with Dustin.

I had believed I would bear his children here, that I would never leave.

I looked at the smugness written all over Gabriella's face and lowered my eyes.

"Fine. It's all yours."

I packed quickly.

I didn't take a single thing Dustin had ever given me. Everything I owned fit into one suitcase.

I moved into the storage room closest to the front door. Easier to leave when the time came.

The moment I pushed the door open, dust billowed into my face and sent me into a coughing fit. The room was a cluttered mess, the bed in the corner buried under piles of junk.

But I could manage for one night.

One night was all I had left.

Sometime past four in the morning, the temperature plunged to freezing. Bitter wind howled outside like something wailing in the dark.

Dustin came home carrying the cold on his skin.

Albert approached him and bowed slightly. "Sir, the madam moved to the storage room. Her health isn't well. Perhaps you could..."

Dustin's expression turned black.

He strode to the storage room and kicked the door open.

I was sitting on the edge of the bed, taking my stomach medication. He stood in the doorway, jaw clenched, eyes burning with a fury that could devour. "Delia Sullivan, what the hell is this act for? Who are you performing for now?"

I looked at him, genuinely confused. "Didn't you tell me to move out?"

"Gabriella said she wanted the master bedroom. She didn't tell you to crawl into a dump like this. Are you trying to make everyone think I abuse you?"

I smiled, perfectly calm. "It doesn't matter where I sleep."

He seized my wrist, snatched the medicine from my hand, and shoved me down onto the dusty, broken bed. Before I could react, his mouth was on mine.

I couldn't dodge, so I bit down hard on his tongue.

Dustin flinched and released me. I scrubbed at my lips frantically.

That mouth of his disgusted me now.

His gaze turned razor-sharp, murderous, as if he wanted to tear me apart. "Don't you dare wipe that off. Who do you think you are to be disgusted by me? I haven't even said a word about you being used goods."

The words drove through my chest like a blade.

He always knew exactly where to cut deepest.

As I struggled, he wrenched my clothes open, exposing the jagged scar across my lower abdomen.

I'd gotten it before he left, when I threw myself in the path of a car to protect him and our unborn child.

The crash shattered two of my ribs and ripped my five-month baby from my body. I nearly bled out on the operating table.

Dustin stared at the scar. Something that might have been regret flickered in the depths of his eyes, but it vanished just as quickly, swallowed by venom.

"You keep this scar on display all the time. Is that your way of reminding me I owe you?"

"Delia Sullivan, I don't owe you a damn thing. The most despicable person in this world is you. Don't you dare forget the filthy things you did back then."

I held back my tears and laughed out loud.

"You're right. I'm despicable. I've never seen it so clearly before, just how rotten I am, right down to the bone."