Page 98 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

I hesitated, then took the box from his hand and opened the lid. I was expecting to see the necklace from his mother that he'd had me wear at the wedding, but it wasn't that at all. It was the large and spectacular blue diamond heart—the Heart of Eternity. I gasped as it glittered in the light.

"That's the real one," Victor said. "I didn't want to give it to Andrew unless I absolutely had to."

"You could have gotten us both killed by holding back."

"It was a calculated risk. I'm usually good at those, but I must admit Andrew was a formidable competitor. Ethan had his doubts all along about Andrew, but you seemed to love him, and I didn't want to believe you'd fallen for a criminal. But I started to worry after you fell off the yacht."

"I was pushed off the yacht by Allison." I paused. "She was working with Bennett. He told her to get rid of me because he found out I was your daughter. Your son didn't want to give up half his inheritance. When Allison failed, he killed her. And tonight, he tried to kill me."

Victor shook his head in bewilderment as he stared at me through troubled eyes. "It's hard to believe such terrible things about my son."

"You can believe me or not; it's the truth."

"I had no idea Bennett knew about you," Victor murmured. "But now it makes sense why he's been in such a rage the last few days."

"If Bennett had gotten rid of me, you would have been next, Victor. He wasn't going to wait for you to die a natural death, he would have taken you out before you could do anything else to lessen the value of the company. He just had to make sure I died first so that addendum wouldn't come into play." I paused. "The ironic thing is that Andrew stopped Bennett from killing me because he needed me to be alive when you showed up. I don't know how I survived both of them, but somehow I did."

"We should get you to the medical center, Mr. Carrington," Martin said, interrupting our conversation. "You can talk about all this later."

I tried to hand Victor back the diamond, but he waved it away.

"The diamond is yours, Lauren. Use it to do something important, something meaningful to you. You deserve it."

"I don't want anything from you."

"I know," he said, meeting my gaze. "And that's exactly why I want you to have it."

I stood there speechless as Martin helped Victor into the waiting vehicle. Then I turned to Ethan. "Will you take this, please? I don't know what to do with it."

"You'll figure it out, but I can put it in the hotel safe for now. No one will know it's there, so it should be safe, especially since we've rounded up all the thieves."

I handed him the velvet box and felt a heavy weight fall from my shoulders, leaving me with a feeling of freedom and lightness I hadn't experienced in a very long time.

The role-playing was over and so was my marriage, maybe even my job. I had no idea where I was going from here, but for the first time in forever, the uncertainty didn't scare me. Shockingly enough, Andrew had given me back something I'd lost, and that was faith in myself.

"What do you want to do now?" Ethan asked. "Can I walk you back to your suite? Do you want me to call one of your friends so you can talk all this out?"

"No. I'm already talking to one of my friends, maybe my most honest friend." I gave him a bemused smile. "Who would have thought you would turn into that? When you showed up at the rehearsal dinner, I believed you were my worst enemy. You didn't trust me at all."

"I didn't. But the more I got to know you, the more I realized you didn't have it in you to lie, at least not well. I could see that you were blinded by love, and while I didn't know what the game was, I knew you were an unwitting player."

"I was blinded," I admitted. "And I feel like a fool, Ethan. How could I have blown by every single red flag? I got so angry with Harper for continuing to tell me I was moving too fast. And I was pissed at you for the same reason. But you were both right. I was the one who was wrong."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You opened yourself up to an emotion you wanted to feel again. Love is powerful. It can cloud your judgment."

"I'm done with love."

"You say that now but give yourself some time. Don't let Andrew steal your capacity to love and to laugh, to feel joy and connection. You deserve all that and more."

"Thanks. I might deserve it, but I'm not in a rush to go down that road again."

"You can take your time. You're not on anyone's schedule anymore."

"Thank God!" I paused. "You don't think Harper knew what Colin was up to, do you?"

"I don't. I believe he was using her as a reason to stay on the island and also to keep a separate connection to you, in case you said something to her you wouldn't say to Andrew."

"That makes sense."

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