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“Was it?” Nadia smiled back. “I mean, I know it’s very au courant to recycle these days, but this is taking it a bit far, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?” Belle said stiffly. She guessed from the context that au courant meant trendy, though for all she knew it could have been a type of jam.
“Oh, didn’t you know?” The blonde’s smile widened. “That’s the same ring Santiago once used to propose to me.”
Belle’s heart fell to the wooden parquet floor.
“No,” she stammered. “You’re mistaken. He picked it out just for me.”
“Oh, didn’t he tell you? That naughty creature.” Nadia’s smile turned wicked. “He tried to give it to me five years ago. Regrettably, he’d waited too long and I’d already been spoken for. But I know my diamonds.”
Belle wrapped her hand around the ring, feeling completely betrayed. But she couldn’t show it, couldn’t let the other woman see how her barb had found its target. She tried to shrug. “Even if it’s the same ring, we have a totally different situation. I never betrayed him.”
“No, you just got pregnant.”
Belle’s eyes narrowed. “While you made him chase you all those years, then married his brother.”
Nadia looked at her with a taunting smile on her red lips. “I’m not married to him anymore. Now I am free.”
Belle stiffened, trying to hide her growing fear. “You think you can take him from me.”
Nadia tilted her head, considering. “You’re not so stupid after all.”
Belle’s cheeks flushed. “You don’t deserve to be Santiago’s wife.”
“I’m more deserving than you.”
“I love him.”
“That I can easily believe.” The movie star’s famous violet eyes cut through her. “But does he love you?”
The burn on Belle’s cheeks intensified.
Because that was the heart of it. Santiago didn’t love her. He never had. He never would.
That was the truth she’d been fighting to deny, to hide, even from herself. Even though he’d once told her to her face that he would never love her, she’d dreamed he might change.
She mumbled, “He proposed to me...”
“He proposed to me first. With that exact ring.?
? Nadia gave her a hard smile. “Curious, don’t you think, that he kept it all these years?”
Belle tried to fight the emotions swirling inside her beneath the other woman’s hard gaze. “He was the one who demanded marriage when he found out I was pregnant...”
“And he obviously felt strongly about it, since he couldn’t even be bothered to get you your own ring.” Nadia leaned forward in her chair, smiling pleasantly. “The ring was mine. As his love was mine. And both will be again.”
Belle couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding frantically. “You’re wrong...he won’t...”
“No?” Grabbing her arm, Nadia said, “I am Santiago’s equal as you never were. We are meant to be together.”
Each word hurt more than the last. “You gave him up,” Belle choked out, struggling to pull her arm away.
“I had to be ruthless to get what I wanted. Santiago of all people will understand this, and respect it.” Her red lips lifted in a smile. “He’s loved me since we were teenagers. He’s ached for me. Hungered for me. We belong together. My choice to marry his brother only made Santiago want me more.” She looked Belle over contemptuously. “Do you really think he would ever choose you, now I’m free?”
No, she didn’t. That was what hurt the most.
“There are two ways to do this,” Nadia said sweetly. “Either give Santiago up gracefully. Or watch helplessly as I take him from you.”
