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“Gabriel sent it?” Ariana echoed. She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“You recognize it?” Olivia felt her heart hit her toes. “It’s cursed, isn’t it?”
“You might say that.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s none of my business.”
There was no way she was letting Ariana get away without an explanation. “If there’s something wrong, I need to know.”
“Really, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Ariana backed toward the bedroom door. “I’m sure everything is fine.”
It wasn’t like Ariana to hedge, especially when it came to things that distressed her. And seeing the bracelet had obviously upset the princess.
“What do you mean everything is fine? Why wouldn’t it be? What aren’t you telling me about the bracelet?”
Olivia caught Ariana’s wrist in a tight grip. Startled, the brunette looked from the hand holding her, to th
e bracelet on Olivia’s wrist and finally met her gaze.
“I don’t want to upset you.”
“And you think that’s going to persuade me to let you walk out of here without spilling the truth?” Olivia tugged her future sister-in-law toward the wingback chairs flanking the fireplace. She didn’t let go until Ariana sat down. “Tell me what about the bracelet upset you.”
Releasing an audible sigh, the princess leveled her pale gold eyes on Olivia. “The last time I saw that bracelet was the night before Gabriel broke things off with Marissa.”
Pain lanced through Olivia, sharper than anything she’d experienced this morning as she’d watched the pictures of Gabriel and Marissa on the television.
“He bought it for her.”
“Yes. It was...for their second anniversary.”
The cool platinum burned like acid against Olivia’s skin. She clawed at the clasp, blood pounding in her ears. Her excitement over having dinner alone with Gabriel vanished, replaced by wrenching despair. The first gift he’d given her had been the bracelet he’d bought to celebrate two years with Marissa?
The clasp popped open beneath her nails. Olivia dropped it on the mantle and sat in the chair opposite Ariana, unsure how much longer her shaky legs would support her.
“How did he get it back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she returned it when they broke up.”
Olivia felt sick. It was bad enough that Gabriel had given her the trinket he’d bought for another woman, it was worse that it was a returned gift. “I thought I’d seen it before,” she murmured.
Ariana leaned forward and placed her hand over Olivia’s. “I’m sure this is all a huge misunderstanding. Maybe I’m thinking of a different bracelet.”
Olivia drew comfort from Ariana for a moment, before sitting up straight and bracing her shoulders. “The only misunderstanding is mine. I thought tonight was supposed to be the beginning of something between us.” She offered Ariana a bitter smile. “I forgot that our marriage is first and foremost a business arrangement.”
“I don’t believe that’s true. I saw the way Gabriel watched you this morning. He was worried by how you reacted to the press coverage of the twins’ arrival and all the scandal it stirred up.”
“He’s worried about losing the deal with my father.”
“Yes, but there’s more to it than that. He had other opportunities to secure Sherdana’s economic future. He chose you.”
Ariana’s words rang with conviction, but Olivia shook her head. The sight of the bracelet made her long to hurl it into the deepest ocean. She felt betrayed and yet she had no right. She was marrying Gabriel because he was handsome and honorable and she would one day become a queen. Her reasons for choosing him were no more romantic than his.
“Ask him to tell you about the first time you met.”
“The party at the French embassy?” Olivia recalled his stiff formality and their brief, stilted conversation, so different from their exchange in the garden this morning.
