Chapter 2

The other ring was set with a sapphire. A year ago, Alex had bought it for me at an auction during the Moretti family's charity gala.

The charity gala was the most respectable face the Moretti family showed the world. Reporters saw only the hotel foundation, the veterans' charities, and the community clinic renovations. They never saw the rooms behind the ballroom, the ones reserved for Moretti advisors, lawyers, and the men who ran the family's territory.

All I'd done that night was look at the sapphire on display a few too many times.

The auctioneer kept calling out bids, and I never raised my paddle. The people around us were still speculating about which private collection the stone had come from when Alex raised his paddle.

The price kept climbing.

I tugged at his sleeve and lowered my voice. "Forget it. I don't like it that much."

He turned his head to look at me. "You've looked at it seven times since we walked in."

I blinked at him. "You counted?"

"I'm not that bored."

Then he raised his paddle again.

When the gavel finally came down, all eyes in the room turned toward us. An older woman in the front row, one of his late mother's closest friends, was among the few people who dared tease Alex to his face.

She turned around and smiled at me. "I've known him for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I've seen him spoil a woman like this."

My ears went hot.

But it was everyone else's reaction that really got to me. These weren't ordinary businessmen. They ran Moretti hotels and docks. Some had been sitting at the family's table since Alex's father was in charge. They knew exactly who I was—and who I wasn't. Yet when Alex gave me that ring in front of them, no one so much as blinked. Their silence told me more than sweet words ever could—and I believed it.

Alex didn't explain. He just slid the velvet box over to me. "If you like it, keep it."

That night, I held on to the box, and my heart wouldn't stop racing.

Back at the hotel, I blocked the bathroom doorway and asked him, "Alex, when are you going to propose to me?"

He stopped in the middle of undoing his cufflinks.

I still remember the way his faint smile faded when I asked.

"Nora, isn't what we have good enough?"

Of course I understood.

Back then, I just couldn't bear to let him go, so I chose to pretend I hadn't.

After that, the sapphire ring stayed locked in the safe in my apartment. I never wore it once.

Because it felt too much like a promise.

But Alex had never actually said the words.

Now there was another ring on my bed. Claire's engagement ring. Left behind with me simply because she didn't like it.

I sat on the edge of the bed until nearly dawn. Then I closed the box.

In the morning, I dragged my suitcase out of the estate.

The black sedan was already waiting at the bottom of the steps.

Alex sat in the back. The seat beside him was empty.

The window rolled down. "Get in."