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For a long moment, he looked at her. She saw the clench of his jaw in the moonlight. When he spoke, his voice was hard.
“I’m sending you back to New York.”
“You’re staying?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re glad.” She choked out a laugh, wiping tears that burned her. “Right. I get it. Let’s face it, I was always your second-choice bride. You never really wanted to marry me. You just wanted to do the right thing for our baby.”
“I still do,” he said quietly. “But as I told you from the beginning, love was never supposed to be part of it.”
Her honesty had ruined any chance they had, she realized. When she’d told him she loved him—that had been the thing that had made him finally decide to end this.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
She tried to smile, but couldn’t. Her cheeks wouldn’t lift. She turned away.
Suddenly, she just wanted this to be over as soon as possible. She pulled off her diamond ring, tugging it hard to get it off her pregnancy-swollen finger. Afraid to touch him—afraid if she did, she would cling to him, sob, slide down his body to the ground and grip his leg as she begged him never to let her go—she held it out. “Here.”
He stared at the ring without moving to take it. Why was he trying to make her suffer? Why wouldn’t he just take it? She slid it into his jacket pocket. She again tried to smile, and again failed. “The ring was never really mine, anyway. You bought it for her.”
Santiago stared at her. “She told you?”
“At the lawyer’s office.” With a choked laugh, Belle looked up at the castle towers overhead. “You know, every time I hear the tap-tap-tap of her stiletto heels, I’ve started to feel like a swimmer seeing a shark fin in the water.” Lifting her gaze to his, she took a deep breath and forced herself to say simply, “But she’s like you. You’ve known her half your life. I can see why you love her.”
“Love her?” He sounded shocked. “Don’t be ridiculous. She’s my broth
er’s widow. He’s not even cold in his grave.”
Why was he trying to deny what was so plain, even to her? “And now she’s free. The only woman you ever loved. The woman you spent years trying to deserve, like a knight on a charger, determined to slay dragons for her. Just like in a fairy tale.” She looked up. “And now you’ll be duke and duchess. You’ll live in a castle in Spain.” She looked up at the moonlit castle in wonder, then down at herself as she stood in the garden, heavily pregnant and with ill-fitting, wrinkled clothes, and whispered, “I’m no man’s prize.”
Reaching out, he cupped her cheek. “It’s better for you, Belle,” he said quietly. “I can’t give you the love you deserve. Now, you’ll have a chance at real happiness.”
She felt frozen, heartsick. “And our baby?”
“We will do as you suggested in Texas, and share custody. Neither you nor our daughter will ever want for anything. You will always have more money than you can spend. I will buy you a house in New York. Any house you desire.”
A lump rose in her throat. “There’s only one house I want,” she whispered. “Our house. The one I decorated, with our baby’s first nursery. With Anna and Dinah. Our house, Santiago.”
He looked down at her. “I’m sorry.”
She looked down at her bare left hand. Once she left him, she thought, all his childhood dreams could come true. He would be a true Zoya. He’d have his father. His position as heir. The woman he’d once loved.
Life was short. Love was all that mattered.
She had to accept it. To set him free, and herself free as well.
Weak with grief, Belle looked up at him. And with a deep breath, she forced herself to say the words that betrayed her very soul. “I’ll leave you, then. Tomorrow.”
“Tonight would be better. I’ll call my pilot and order the plane ready.”
Santiago’s voice was so matter-of-fact, so cold. As if he didn’t care at all. While her own heart was in agony. She wanted to cry. Her voice trembled. “You’re in such a rush to get rid of me?”
His jaw set. “Once the decision is made, it’s best to get it over with. You deserve better than me. A good man who can actually love you back.”
“You could be that man,” she whispered. She struggled to smile, to find a trace of her old spirit, even as her eyes were wet with tears. “I know you could.”
Emotion flashed across his handsome face, but before she could identify it, it was gone. He looked away.
