Chapter 3: The Shield of Diamonds
"Yours?" Victoria’s voice cut through the air like a siren. She marched over, her diamond engagement ring catching the winter sunlight, flashing aggressively between them. "Ethan, what kind of sick joke is this? This woman is a maid. She cleans our toilets. Are you seriously accusing yourself of... of this?"
Ethan didn't look up at her. His focus was entirely on Rosa, who finally raised her head. Her dark eyes were full of unshed tears, but beneath them was the same steel he had fallen in love with in Queens.
"You left, Ethan," Rosa whispered, her voice cracking. "Your assistant told me you were overseas and that your family had 'settled' your future. I found out two weeks later. I wasn't going to beg a billionaire to love my baby."
"My father," Ethan breathed, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. His father had orchestrated the silence. And Ethan, caught up in the arrogance of his own ambition, had allowed himself to be blinded by it.
"This is absurd!" Victoria yelled, grabbing Ethan’s arm, trying to force him to stand up. "The dinner party is in five hours! The caterers are arriving! My parents are flying in from Palm Beach! I don't care what kind of sordid little college mistake you made, Ethan, but you are going to get this woman and her brat out of my house right now!"
Ethan slowly stood up to his full height. He looked down at Victoria's hand on his arm. Then, he looked at her face—the flawless makeup, the absolute lack of empathy, the cruel mouth that had just ordered his daughter into the snow.
"Your house?" Ethan asked, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Victoria, you haven't signed a single document. Nothing in this room belongs to you."
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"We are getting married in three weeks!" she hissed.
"No," Ethan said, reached out, and calmly unclasped her hand from his arm. "We aren't."
