That was the first time Sapphire ever looked at me with any respect.
"I know my son better than anyone. He seems devoted, but he's fickle at heart."
"The fact that you've managed him this well—that's no small feat."
From then on, I finally had a place in this family.
But now—
I closed my eyes and swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat.
"Please continue, Mother."
"I'll keep quiet."
The remaining eighteen lashes shredded what was left of my dignity—and the so-called true love I'd foolishly believed in.
A dull ache spread through my lower abdomen. Before the final blow could land, I crumpled to the floor.
Russ emerged from his room and looked down at me, his gaze ice-cold. "The moment I come out, you collapse?"
"Save the act. Chloe likes pink, and there haven't been any good pink diamonds lately—so I took this one a while back."
He held up a ring. A pink diamond.
The same one he'd used to propose to me.
His friends had told me he'd flown to South Africa to select the stone himself, then apprenticed under a master jeweler just to cut and polish it with his own hands.
He'd told me he would only ever make a ring for the love of his life.