"Someone like me has no business crossing women like you—rich, powerful, untouchable." I looked at him. "Blake, I'm not worthy of you. Just let me go. I don't want to end up dead one day for no reason at all."
He frowned, his gaze turning sharp and hostile.
"Explain yourself."
I lowered my hand, revealing the swollen red mark on my cheek.
"You should ask her what she said."
"Miss Sullivan!" Fiona shrieked, her voice pitched high and piercing. "Yes, I slapped you—because you threatened my parents' lives! They're just ordinary people! If hitting me back will make you feel better, go ahead. I'm begging you, just don't hurt them."
My eyes burned scarlet with fury. "You're lying! You were the one who—"
"Enough." Blake's cold voice cut me off. He looked at me with open disappointment. "Theresa, I've spoiled you rotten."
"What, you think because you have no parents, I won't touch you?"
Maybe I'd already seen it coming. Maybe my heart had gone cold long before this.
I laughed—a hollow, useless sound. My eyes stung so badly they ached. "So how exactly do you plan to stand up for your wife?"
He walked toward me, slow and deliberate, then peeled the ring from my finger—the one he'd made with his own hands after earning his first real money.
He turned to his assistant.
"Call the police. My wife's jewelry has been stolen. Caught red-handed."
I forgot how to move. My mind went blank.
Blake's rise to the top had never been a gentle one. He was used to being ruthless.
I was his only soft spot.
Right or wrong, he'd always taken my side. No questions asked.
Not a single person in Riverport had ever dared play dirty with me.
But now, the one driving the knife into my chest was him.
Blake turned the ring over between his fingers. Through the tears pooling in my eyes, his cold features blurred into something I no longer recognized.
"Tessa, you've been very disobedient. Go in and reflect on what you've done for a few days."
"Don't worry—it won't be long. When you come out, I'll put the ring back on your finger myself."
I twisted my lips into something bitter.
Officers walked in. As the handcuffs closed around my wrists, I pulled my hand free from his grip, my face completely expressionless.
The sudden emptiness in his palm made Blake frown. He stared at my retreating back, seized by the irrational feeling that he would never hold on to me again.