Page 36 of Ben

All the air left the room as chaos reigned around her, and she watched Ben just get up and walk away.

She turned and faced everyone, her eyes catching her mother’s face. She was the only one not wearing a dismayed or angry expression on her face. Her mother was studying her.

And she would have smiled if this wasn’t a disaster. What was supposed to be a quick way of getting Ben’s attention had backfired horribly, and now his and her family were upset, shocked, and mad at him.

“I know about the pictures.”

And the chatter in the room stuttered to a stop.

“What?” Ambra approached her in shock.

“In fact, I posed for all of them.”

Ambra's head reared back in disbelief.

She shrugged and looked at her sister. “Come on Ambra, you know I can be vain sometimes and like attention on me; of course I knew what Ben was doing.”

“And encouraged it, didn’t you?” Her mother spoke quietly from her chair.

“Yes.” She said simply taking a leaf from Ben’s book.

“And that’s not all.” She told them what she’d done, and everyone froze in stunned silence. You could hear a pin drop when she’d come clean about everything.

She could see that Ambra was trying to wrap her head around this, and then a look of realization came across her face, and she scowled at Diamond. “Wait a minute, you encouraged me to change my hair and wear that red dress. You even joked about it a couple of days before the event at the hotel, how funnyit would be at the charity if someone raised their paddle and ruined Michael’s date with Summer.”

Michael stepped next to Ambra, who turned her glower on him, but he ignored her; he looked angry but also relieved at the same time. And she understood it must have been hard for him when he’d discovered that his brother had photos of her. But her knowing put a different spin on everything.

“She also recommended the package be a trip to Switzerland when we had that meeting about the charity auction being at the hotel.”

“You wanted us out of the way.”

“Yes, I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Getting you guys to finally admit your love for each other and out of my way, or the plan would not have worked.”

“What would you have done if I had come home instead of running away to Barbados?”

“Well, it was a lucky break that Michael overheard Zahara talking to Carter about it.”

Zahara’s mouth opened in surprise, and then a look crossed her face. “Yes, but it was Ben that got me talking about my friendships and Coco when Michael showed up.”

“You two were both working together for almost the same goal.”

Zahara broke out in a laugh but then silenced it when everyone turned to glare at her, but that didn’t stop her from grinning and then leaning forward. “You and Ambra are going to fit so well into this crazy family.”

Chapter 19

“Mouse?”

“Mouse, you can come in now.” Diamond called as she continued to stare at the man she’d grown to love in the short amount of time she’d been married to him. Maybe she’d always been a little in love with Ben and couldn’t entertain it because of Bryce, but now that Bryce was out of the picture, she was able to let her feelings for Ben grow, and her heart was racing because she had a very important question to ask him after she told him the whole story.

And from the look on his face when she’d walked in on him, she knew the answer; she just needed to hear him say it.

Because obsession and love were two different things, and after becoming married to him, she realized she didn’t want to just be his obsession anymore.

She turned when she heard the jingle of keys and chains approach the room they were in, and then a tall, slim, Black woman, wearing all black and tattoos running from her neck to her uncovered arms, where silver rings adorned her fingers. Mouse had a nose ring, her hair was shaved close to her head, and she wore big, hooped earrings; on her feet were black and white high-top sneakers. She had big lips, but sharp cheekbones and an aquiline nose and a small scar along her right cheek. Mouse’s features didn’t make her a beauty but would work well in a photo. Diamond could see her height and the type of features she had being in fashion magazines, but Mouse did not allow you to take photos of her at all, and if you knew her like Diamond did, that wasn’t what Mouse was interested in doing.

She bent her head slightly to come through the door and stood there quietly staring at the pictures of Diamond on the wall before her dark eyes met theirs, and she bent her head, patiently waiting.

Diamond turned to Ben. “This is Mouse. I met her at one of our shelters where she is staying until she gets on her feet. I was having a problem on my laptop, and she fixed it for me. We started chatting, and I realized how good she was.”

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