05. Are You Cheating On Me?

ISABELLE.

I had thought I could handle hearing the truth. That as long as William had a reasonable explanation. I could try to understand him.

Well, I was wrong. 

My pulse hammered in my ears as I made my way upstairs. Tears blurred the steps, and I gripped the railing until I reached our room.

If I weren’t stamping my feet as I made my way upstairs, I would have suspected even the ground was working against me. 

William had taken my ring from me. Then he went down on one knee and asked Chloe to marry him.

“Belle,” he called from behind me. 

I kept walking. 

I went straight into the closet and pulled out the first suitcase I could find. I didn’t know where I was going. I only knew I couldn’t stand in front of him any longer.

“Belle.”

His hand touched my shoulder. I stiffened.

“Please wait,” he said softly.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

William took the suitcase from me and set it aside. Then his hands settled at my waist, and I let him lead me across the hall to his study.

“I wasn’t lying.”

He hurried to his desk, pulled open a drawer, and came back with a small velvet box.

“I really did have a new ring made for you. I was going to give it to you on my birthday.”

He opened the box.

The ring was beautiful. Even I could see that, and I had never cared much about jewelry, no matter how often my mother tried to teach me about it. 

The stone caught the light with every movement of his hand. Deep inside it, a smaller pink stone gleamed like a secret.

It was more beautiful than the ring he had taken.

“When Sandra asked me to bring a ring that would make the engagement believable, I thought I could give Chloe the one you wouldn’t need anymore.” His voice grew quieter. “I didn’t think about what it would mean to you.”

He went down on one knee.

“Isabelle, I’m sorry.”

His brown eyes were warm and pleading. For a moment, all I could see was the man who had courted me for a year, who had once looked at me like this and asked me to marry him.

Then I remembered him kneeling in front of Chloe.

I stepped back.

He could have bought any ring for their arrangement. A new one would have cost him nothing.

But the ring he gave her had been mine. A token of our marriage. How could he decide I no longer needed it and put it on another woman’s finger?

“No, William. You can’t have two women wearing your rings.”

I turned toward the door. He stood and reached it before me.

“Please don’t leave.”

“You took it off my hand.”

“I know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t thinking. It was stupid, and I shouldn’t have done it.”

“William—”

“No. I shouldn’t have agreed to any of this. I just…”

His voice trailed off. He looked at the ring in the box, then closed it.

“I’ll call it off.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“The project. I’ll call the whole thing off.”

The study was quiet for five seconds. Five seconds of him staring at me with eyes that were wide and pleading. 

I looked away. It’s like I’m breathing but also holding my breath at the same time. 

He took out his phone.

They were bidding billions to develop the Valent project. William had spent months preparing for it. I watched him call Sandra with my breath caught in my throat. 

“William?” Her voice came through the phone.

“Don’t release the engagement pictures. Tell the team we’re withdrawing from the Valent bid.”

He ended the call before she could respond and took one careful step toward me.

“That’s it,” he said.

I’m breathing now and it’s shameless but all of my anger vanishes into thin air. 

All I can do is just stare blankly at him. 

He had done it. I still hated what he had done with my ring, but I could no longer tell myself that he would choose the project no matter how much it hurt me.

“Belle, I chose you over the arrangement our families made with the Ashfords. I’m still choosing you.” 

He stepped closer and rested his hands on my shoulders.

“When I’m stuck in a meeting, you’re the person I want to come home to. I want to wake up next to you.”

My throat tightened.

“I still want our children to have your eyes.” He lifted a hand to my cheek. “Your mouth, too. Your nose. Everything.”

He pressed his forehead to mine.

Once, those words would have made me throw my arms around him.

Now I could still hear the people at the party laughing. I could still see him standing there while they talked about me.

I pulled away.

“Belle?”

“I’m not leaving,” I said. “But I need some space.”

His shoulders dropped. He dragged a palm down his face.

“Fuck,” he cursed. “I was so scared.” 

“I thought I lost you,” he breathed. 

I tried to smile. Well, at least one of us was relieved.

I walked out of the study, and he followed me.

“Where were you last night?” he asked. “I searched for you. There was no footage of you leaving the hotel, and then your phone’s location disappeared.”

Roman.

He must have had someone remove the footage. As for my phone, I knew better than to expect its location to work around Roman’s security.

“I stayed with a friend,” I replied. 

William latched on to it. “What friend? Nina?” 

“No.” Nina was still away.  

“Then who?”

I stopped and faced him. “I was safe. I’m here now. Can we deal with one thing at a time?”

His expression sharpened.

“I deserve to know who you spent the night with, Belle. Especially when you smell like this.”

“Like what?” I shot back, already feeling the anger sweeping through me. 

He leaned close, and sniffed. I pulled back before he could touch me.

“Like you were with a man.”

I almost cannot believe it. Cannot believe that after everything from last night and now, this is what we are talking about. 

“My friend is a man,” I said. “He gave me his jacket.”

It was a lie, but I wasn’t going to tell William about Roman. Or about my family. Not like this. 

“Who is he?” 

“I’m not answering any more questions right now. I’m too tired to take care of your feelings as well as mine.”

His jaw tightened. I could see how much he wanted to press me, but he said nothing as I went into the bathroom.

I stayed under the shower until the water began to cool. It usually helped me sort through my thoughts. 

Today, I went over my conversation with William and avoided thinking about everything that had happened after Roman found me outside the hotel.

William had called off the project. I had seen him do it. The thought of losing our marriage had frightened him enough to walk away from something he wanted.

What happened with the ring was horrible. I couldn’t make it less horrible by remembering every good thing he had done. But perhaps we could still find our way back from it.

I wanted to try.

William was still willing to fight for this and maybe that was what I needed to do too. 

A mistake shouldn’t erase all our years together. 

When I left the shower, I felt much better. Lighter. 

No relationship was perfect but what we had was still worth fighting for. 

But when I stepped out, my steps slowed when I saw William pacing the room while holding my phone. 

The purple phone case looked out of place in his hands. 

“Will?”

He froze and turned toward me.

“You must have called him,” he said. “Or sent him a message.”

“What?”

“Your friend. There’s nothing from him on your phone.”

“Why is there no call or message to him?” 

My chest tightened again. 

Oh. 

He was not looking at me. His eyes were glued to the screen while his fingers kept tapping away. 

“Why is there nothing? Did you delete it?” He demanded. 

I finally found my voice. “You went through my phone?” 

“Belle.” His voice was low and chilling. 

When he looked up, all the warmth in his eyes was now replaced by a darkness I had never seen from him.

“Are you cheating on me?”