Chapter 6

"I didn't do anything!" Gabriel protested. "He stopped me on my way out and mocked me for being an orphan. Said nobody had raised me properly."

"No!" Owen sobbed. "Losing my parents was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Why would I mock anyone for being an orphan? Gabriel said I was cursed, that I killed my parents, and that I should hurry up and die. He hates me because I'm in the way. But if my parents hadn't saved Bella, she'd be dead!"

The guests looked at Gabriel in disgust.

"I never said that," he insisted, clenching his fists.

A sharp slap interrupted him.

Victoria McCarthy had struck him so hard his ears rang. Blood touched his lip.

"I never imagined you were so petty. You can't even tolerate the child of the people who saved my daughter! And you expect to marry into this family?"

"Mom!" Isabella shouted.

"You're still protecting him?" Isabella's father, Richard McCarthy, demanded. He looked Gabriel up and down with contempt. "Since when does any stray off the street get invited to my parties?"

He summoned security. "Throw him out."

"Let go!" Gabriel struggled as the guards grabbed him. "I can walk out myself!"

Across the room, Isabella stood holding Owen. Her eyes remained fixed on Gabriel, torn and miserable, until the emotion slowly vanished. She turned her face away.

Gabriel felt something inside him break.

After six years, surely Isabella knew what kind of person he was. Yet she'd believed Owen immediately and let her family humiliate him in front of everyone.

He stopped fighting the guards.

When he returned to the house, he found the living room destroyed. Framed pictures of him and Isabella lay shattered. Stuffed animals had been thrown away. Cups and vases were smashed across the floor.

Three years of making that place a home, erased.

He knew Owen had done it. He also knew Isabella had allowed it. Gabriel asked no questions. He stepped over the broken photographs and went to his room.

He opened a suitcase and packed only what he needed. Everything else could go.

There were still three days before his departure, but he couldn't bear another night under that roof.

Before leaving, he called Isabella.

"Five years ago, I asked you to keep a silver locket safe for me. I want it back."

The locket was the only thing his parents had left him when they placed him in care. It was proof that he'd once been loved, and later it had become a symbol of his relationship with Isabella.

He wanted that part of himself back.

"Why do you need it?" she asked after a pause.

"That's not your concern. Just return it."

"I'm using it right now. I'll give it back in a few days."

His stomach tightened. "Using it for what?"

Silence. Then she said, "Owen was frightened after the party. I lent it to him for comfort."

Gabriel's hand tightened around the phone.

"That's the only thing my parents left me! What gives you the right to give it away? Do my feelings matter to you at all?"

"Did you think about Owen's feelings when you told him he'd killed his parents and should die?

"Gabriel, I've told you there is nothing romantic between Owen and me. You're the one I love. Why are you determined to hurt him? His parents saved my life. Without them, you and I might never have seen each other again. Instead of being grateful, you keep pushing him toward the edge. Will you only be satisfied when he's dead?"

Her disappointment was colder than he'd ever heard it.

"For the last time, I never cursed Owen or told him to die! I..."

A crushing exhaustion overtook him. What was the point of arguing with someone who had already decided he was guilty?

He exhaled slowly. "Tell me what I have to do to get my locket back."

"Owen has it," Isabella replied. "Get him to forgive you, and you can have it whenever you like."