Chapter 42
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He stared at the ring in his hand and rotated it to see how the light would catch. “Magnificent job,” he said to Francis, the owner of the jewelry store his family had frequented for years. He just couldn’t wait to see the look on Ruby’s face. The ring in his hand was the one who couldn’t stop looking at when he had brought her there to pick her ring earlier. It was the one she clearly wanted, but just didn’t dare ask for. He had smiled to himself then, knowing that he was going to come back for it and he was already imagining what it would look like on her linger,
“Six carats, emerald cut,” Francis said to him. “Perfect for Mrs. Blackwood.
He nodded at the man in front of him. “Perfect indeed. The carat weight was perfect for someone of Ruby’s stature–for his wife. Yet the band itself was simple. It would suit her.
“Alex”
He froze with the ring in hand, chills running down his spine. He could recognize that voice anywhere, and it made his heart ache. He didn’t turn. Instead, he kept his eyes on Ruby’s ring in his hand.
“That… what is that?” Natalie asked.
Francis nodded at her, his poker face intact. Alex had brought Natalie to the same store countless times. She owned many of Francis priceless pieces, and it was here that he had come looking for a ring for her years ago.
“Pack it up for me,” he told Francis, who nodded politely.
“Alexander, Natalie repeated in a softer voice.
He turned to her, bracing himself. She smiled at him and his heart twisted even more painfully. Her long blonde hair was perfectly straight, and she looked at him as though she never stabbed him in the heart and then twisted the knife while simultaneously smiling at him.
“It’s Alex,” he corrected her.
She looked stricken and glanced at Francis. “That was that an emerald cut ring?”
Alex crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her. “Speaking of rings,” he said, “I hear congratulations are in order. It must have slipped my mind the last time I saw you. I can’t seem to think straight when I have Ruby in my arms.”
He smirked in satisfaction as her cheeks reddened, and she twisted the engagement ring around her finger. A stab of pain cut through his heart at the sight of her ring, but he took a sick type of delight in knowing that Ruby’s ring was bigger. “That’s cute,” he said to her, nodding at the ring.
She immediately hid the ring behind her other hand and grinned up at him. That same smile that he used to love it no longer looked the way that it used to. It didn’t look innocent and sweet anymore. Now, it looked fake and calculative, Had always been that way and he was just realizing it? Or was it that way now because of the way she had treated him?
“Don’t take this joke too far. I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish, but being with a girl like that isn’t going to make me jealous. Did you know she came running to her father’s house not too long ago, begging for money? She looked so pathetic, tears and snot running down her face, crying on the floor. She was basically dressed in rags too. I know you Alex, and you could never be with someone like that,”
Anger coursed through him as he heard the way Natalie was speaking about Ruby. “Not too long ago, you were the one wearing cheap clothes,” he said, giving her a once over. “But look at you now.” He shook his head and smirked “Ruby was born with class running through her very veins, no matter what he wears. You might marry one of us, Natalie, but you’ll never be one of us. Not truly.”
She looked at him as though he had slapped her and gritted her teeth. “She’s using you. You know that, right? She needs money for her mother’s hospital bills or something like that. Is she the reason you’ve been ignoring all of my text
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Chapter 42
messages?”
The fact that Cole had gone around badmouthing his sister to Natalie was crazy and the lack of empathy from Natalie astounded him. He always thought Natalie had a heart of gold, but now he was wondering if that was all an act too. Or maybe she never even had to put on an act, and he was just too smitten to see her true colors.
“What Ruby needs is none of your concern,” he added. “It’s mine. She’s mine.”
Natalie looked at him through narrowed eyes. “If I wasn’t good enough for you, there’s no way someone as pathetic as Ruby would be. Your mother would never allow it.”
He frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
Natalie laughed, but there was a hint of pain in her gaze. “Your mother. The second our relationship got serious, she started to show me how ill–suited she thought we were. She’d take me to all these events where she knew I would be out of my depth, and she’d never give me any warnings or advice. I could take that, you know.” Natalie brushed her hair out of the way the way she did when she was flustered. “But then we spoke about marriage, you and I, and your mother gave me an incredibly restrictive pre–nup.”
He raised his brows. This was all new information to him. Neither his mother nor Natalie had ever mentioned anything of the sort. As far as he was aware, his mom was doing the same thing with Ruby. Not to show her that they were ill suited, but to slowly ease her back into society, to help her make new connections. It was highly likely that that was what she had been attempting to do with Natalie, too. His heart sank as he thought of his mother. Was she unknowingly the reason that Natalie walked away?
“I couldn’t do it,” she continued. “Constantly being made to feel like I was not good enough for you, like I didn’t deserve you. Can’t live the rest of my life like that, no matter how much I loved you, no matter how much I still do.”
“So you cheated?” He asked, his voice deadly calm.
Natalie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. Matthew was just a friend at the start, but he was just always there. You were always working, and you’d cut me off the second I said anything negative about your mother. He was just there when I needed someone.”
He smiled at her and nodded. “I see… so it was my fault you cheated on me?”
She shook her head, flustered, and he laughed. “My mother was right about you all along.” he told her. “A pre–nup shouldn’t have mattered to you if you didn’t think we’d ever get divorced. I know my mother, and any pre–nup she’d have asked you to sign would have still provided you with enough money to live off. All she would have done was safeguard the Blackwood
assets,”
Natalie’s eyes flashed with guilt and dismay, and he knew then that he was right. The money she had been offered was likely quite a sizable amount.
“Either way.” Natalie said. “I was so devoted to you, and I still wasn’t good enough for you according to your mother. If I wasn’t, then I don’t see how Ruby will ever be.”
He stared at her, the difference between Ruby and her seemed greater now than he had initially thought it was. Natalie looked fake in every way–her hair, her lips, her tits, but also her smile and her kindness. None of it looked or felt real. She wasn’t worth the hatred or the mental real estate she had been occupying in his head–le glanced at Francis, who rushed toward him, a ring box in hand. He smiled at him as he took the box from him and placed it in his suit pocket. He glanced back at Natalie, now seeing her in a different light. “It was good to see you Natalie, I wish you and Cole the best. You really do deserve each other
He walked away before she could say a word, and this time, he didn’t look back.
