"Cecily, you threw away our wedding ring?" Dustin's fingers were smeared with filth from the trash, but he gripped the ring tight, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Why?"
His little vacation with her was over, then.
"No reason." My voice was flat. "You stopped wearing yours a long time ago."
I glanced at his ring finger. Our wedding band was long gone. In its place sat a custom-made matching ring—the one he'd spent a fortune designing as a set with Alice's.
"I've told you over and over, Alice and I are just putting on an act." His voice rose, edged with the kind of anger that comes from being caught. "Do you have to be this unreasonable?"
Unreasonable. In the past, those words would have gutted me. I would have been devastated, drowning in hurt.
But now, even feeling hurt was just another form of self-destruction.
"You're right. I'm being unreasonable." My tone was as flat as a weather report. "Happy now?"
He froze, as if he couldn't believe those words had come out of my mouth. Then irritation creased his brow, and he changed the subject with blunt force. "I don't have time for this. The family banquet is tomorrow. Be there early."
I paused. "You still need me there?" The Delgado family banquet—that symbol of status and belonging.
"You are carrying my child, after all. Come quietly, and don't stir up trouble with Alice."
The way he said it, like he was granting me a favor. As if I really were the other woman, permitted to attend only because I happened to be carrying Dustin Delgado's baby, and even then, I had to sneak in through the back door.
It didn't matter. This would be the last time anyway.
Dustin fixed me with a hard stare. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes—a thread of unease he couldn't quite name.
I nodded.
"Alright. I'll be there on time."
He exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders so subtly it was almost imperceptible.
### Chapter 6
Time slipped by, and before I knew it, the night of the Delgado family banquet had arrived.
I stepped into the grand hall on the hotel penthouse floor, and the room blazed with light. Crystal chandeliers dripped from the ceiling, casting a brilliant glow over every smiling face. A champagne tower rose impossibly high, and a string quartet played softly in the corner.
Dustin and Alice stood at the center of the crowd in matching silver evening wear, looking like a picture-perfect couple under the lights.