“Will you give me the joy of being your husband?” he asked again, voice warm and earnest. He pulled a small velvet box from his pocket and produced one of the biggest diamond rings I’d ever seen. All I could do was nod, completely stunned and unsure of what happened to my voice.
Relief broke across his face, and it made my stomach twist so violently I thought I might be sick right there on the roses and his shoes.
“Thank you,” he whispered, voice thick with emotion. I wished more than anything that it wasn’t real.
He slid the ring onto my finger with careful and reverent fingers.
The metal felt heavy, cold, and final.
I stared at it, unable to move, unable to breathe. It looked ridiculous sitting on my hand as I’d never imagined anything so big and audacious before. I’d always wanted something practical, something other than a massive diamond. Maybe a pearl or moss agate. Something that spoke to who I was and what I loved. I’d never cared for diamonds, and here I was staring at one that cost a small fortune.
“You’ve made me the happiest man alive,” he murmured as he cupped my cheeks gently and placed a soft kiss on my lips. His face glowed as he pulled away from me.
I swallowed a sob. I knew this day was coming, but I didn’t think he would make it so romantic. I didn’t think he would put so much time and effort into this. The last thing I’d expected was for it to hurt so badly because I knew there wasn’t going to be any taking this thing off either, and Ivan would be one of the first to see it.
I could already picture it—the way he would try to mask the devastation, that stiff pull in his jaw, that flicker of pain in his icy eyes he thought no one could see. He would lookat the ring, then at me, and then there would be the final nail in the coffin. I would lose him for good.
It was one thing for us to pretend when Donovan wasn’t around and I wasn’t having to go on dates left and right, but it was another to have a constant reminder, and that was exactly what this was.
Chapter Forty-One
Ivan
“Isit weird that I’m kind of excited?” Jane talked nonstop from the time we’d left the penthouse building and began our quick journey to my mother’s home on the other side of the city.
The Fairchild brothers didn’t want anyone to know where we would go, and they wanted us under the radar. They mentioned something about beefing up security, but I told them that wouldn’t be necessary considering, no one had more security surrounding them than my mother did. It was the last place anyone would think to look because I was a shadow. It was on a need-to-know basis that I was even the bodyguard to the Fairchild daughters.
“I mean,” Jane stopped, fiddled with the edge of her jumper, and then wiggled in her seat. “I would have never thought we would get to meet your mother. What is she like? Is she, um, poor?”
“Jane,” Don warned from the front seat.
She rolled her eyes as if Don was her annoying father and not one of her bodyguards. “I know, I know, you can never assume someone’s social or monetary standing. Especially since, technically, I’m poor now.”
“You’ll see when we get there,” was all I could say because she would know as soon as we stepped into the lobby of the new building. She would see the luxury in every single detail. My mother wanted the best, and she always got it. It helped that it had some of the best surveillance and was locked up tighter than the White House. She wanted to feel safe after everything that had happened a few years prior, and I didn’t blame her. If this was what made her feel safe, then that was all that mattered.
“She’s going to love me,” Jane said confidently. “I mean… Ithinkshe will. I’m good with moms. Well, except my mom. I think she hates me. She won’t answer any of my texts. I don’t think I have it in me to call. I think that would hurt more.”
My jaw flexed.
What did I say to that? My chest ached for her, but there was nothing to say…
Because right then, the car began to turn onto my mother’s street, and Jane leaned toward the window, mouth falling open as the building came into view.
A sweeping marble entrance. Gold sconces. Uniformed doormen. A doorman at thedoorman’sstation. A cascading water wall lit from beneath. Two armored SUVs were parked out front that looked like they came from a presidential motorcade.
“Oh,” Jane whispered.
Yeah.
Oh.
“My mom isn’t poor,” I said quietly, pushing open the door as Don pulled up to the curb. “Far from it, actually.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “She lives here?Here?”
“Yeah.”
“And she’s—like—normal?”
