Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Ten days before the wedding, I saw a post from Adrian Sterling’s first love, Vanessa Vale, on her private social feed.
In the photo, she was smiling like she had the whole world in her hands. On her finger, a sapphire engagement ring flashed under the light.
It was the ring I had spent half a year designing myself.
I had never even let myself try it on. I had kept it locked in the safe at the Sterling villa, waiting for the wedding day, waiting for that one moment when it would stun everyone in the room.
Now it was on another woman’s hand.
I turned off my phone and sat staring at the ceiling until dawn.
The next day, as soon as Adrian came home, I set a glass of warm water in front of him. My voice was so calm it sounded as if I were discussing the weather.
“Adrian Sterling, we’re done.”
He lifted his eyes to me, impatience written all over his face. “Claire Bennett, are you finished throwing your tantrum? The wedding is in ten days. The invitations have already gone out.”
“I’m not throwing a tantrum. I mean it.”
I took an inventory sheet from my bag and spread it in front of him. “These are the bags, jewelry, shares, and properties you’ve given me over the past two years. Everything is listed here. I don’t want any of it. I just want us separated as soon as possible.”
When I was twenty-four, I got engaged to Adrian, who was twenty-seven. Soon after, I moved into his villa.
I had believed our marriage was a certainty, so I had accepted what he gave me without unease. Now that I was leaving, I didn’t want to take a single thing that carried his shadow with me.
Adrian flipped through two pages of the inventory as if he were barely reading it. His fingertips tapped idly against the table.
“Reason?”
Then, as though something had just occurred to him, he added, “Is this because Vanessa wore the ring? Sorry. I didn’t know it was the engagement ring. I’ve already asked my assistant to get it back. It’ll be returned to you soon.”
His tone was so flat, so careless, as if he were talking about some trivial mistake.
The anger I had swallowed all night ignited in an instant.
That was not just an ordinary ring.
It was the ring I had drawn hundreds of sketches for. The ring I had personally overseen as the jeweler shaped and polished it. The ring into which I had poured every expectation I had for our marriage.
I had been away for half a month on a sourcing trip, and this was the farce waiting for me when I came back.
And he could still say, so lightly, that he “didn’t know.”
“Enough!”
Chapter 2
I shot to my feet, my voice shaking. “This time it’s the engagement ring. What about next time? Am I supposed to hand over the title of Mrs. Sterling to her too?”
“If there’s no room for me in your heart anyway, then shouldn’t I be sensible and step aside? Clear the way for her?”
Adrian frowned. The confusion in his eyes made it look as if he were staring at an unreasonable child.
“Claire, you’re jealous over something this small? You should know better than anyone that our marriage is built on mutual benefit. No one can shake your position as Mrs. Sterling.”
“I’ll forgive you this time. Don’t bring up separating again.” He pulled a black card from his wallet and pushed it toward me. “Be good and do what you’re supposed to do as Mrs. Sterling. There’s five million on this card. Consider it compensation.”
I stared at the card.
All I felt was irony.
Adrian Sterling had always been like this. Everything could be measured, priced, converted into advantage.
For three years, he had taught me etiquette, taken me through every kind of society event, shaped me into the sort of woman who could stand beside him as Mrs. Sterling. He had groomed me for high society, for his world, for the role he thought I should want.
He had forgotten that none of that had ever been what I wanted.
I loved him. I had loved him since the first time I saw him when we were young.
But that love had been worn thin by his coldness and his contempt, sanded down until almost nothing was left.
And Vanessa Vale was his idealized first love, the girl he had never been able to have. I should have understood long ago how different she was to him.
A tear struck the back of my hand, cold against my skin. I wiped it away, pushed the card back toward him, and forced out a smile.
“No, thank you, Mr. Sterling. We’re not right for each other. Separating is better for both of us.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
He was used to controlling everything. No one dared reject him once, let alone again and again.
“Fine,” he said, his voice icy. “Don’t regret it. A gift given is gone. I’m not so short on money that I need it back.”
I tucked the return inventory away, then picked up the card as well.
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“I called a moving company,” I added. “It may get a little noisy in a while. Sorry for disturbing you.”
He lit a cigarette, took a drag, and said flatly, “It’s fine.”
I turned and walked out of the living room, already dialing the movers.
Half an hour later, the moving crew arrived.
I pointed to the things in the villa that belonged to me. “Take every woman’s item out of here. Especially the jewelry in the bedroom safe. Be careful with those. They’re fragile.”
Three hours later, the Sterling villa, once filled with traces of me, stood almost empty.
Chapter 3
I looked back at the place where I had lived for three years. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adrian leaning against the bedroom doorway, watching me with an unreadable expression.
There was no need for another goodbye.
I turned to leave, only to find Vanessa standing at the entrance with a handbag in her arm, looking delicate and wronged.
The moment she saw me, her eyes reddened. She hurried over and grabbed my hand, her voice choked with emotion.
“Claire, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that ring meant so much to you. I just thought it was beautiful, so I asked Adrian for it.”
Her lashes trembled. “I thought you had so much money, you must have plenty of rings. Not like me. I don’t have anything. I thought you wouldn’t mind. Please don’t be angry. I’ll give it back to you right now.”
As she spoke, she began tugging hard at the ring on her finger.
She pulled for a long time without getting it off. Instead, she only made her finger red and swollen.
Her little performance almost made me laugh from sheer anger.
Would someone who was sincerely apologizing wear another woman’s engagement ring and stroll openly into that woman’s almost-marital home?
She had come here on purpose. She was provoking me.
Sure enough, in the next second, Adrian walked over.
He seized Vanessa’s hand, his face full of concern. “Stop pulling. You’ll hurt your finger.”
Then he looked at me, his tone carrying an order. “Claire, I’ll buy the ring from you for three million. Consider it compensation.”
Vanessa leaned into his arms and looked up at him with eyes full of gratitude, their tenderness so obvious it made my own eyes sting.
“It’s not for sale,” I said, enunciating every word. “I designed that engagement ring for myself. Take it off. Now.”
Adrian frowned, clearly displeased by my attitude.
Vanessa, however, clung to his arm and played the understanding one. “Adrian, it was Claire’s to begin with. I should give it back to her.”
With that, she turned and went into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, she came out holding the ring and handed it to me.
I reached for it.
The moment I saw it clearly, my anger snapped loose.
The band had been resized smaller.
“You altered the band?” I stared at her, my voice turning cold.
Vanessa shrank behind Adrian as if frightened, her voice trembling. “It was a little big on me, so… so I had it adjusted. I’m sorry. I’ll find a jeweler right away and have it changed back for you.”
“How do you change it back after cutting it down?”
I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.
“Vanessa Vale, you make me sick.”