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.