Chapter 1 - The Ring
The diamond was the first thing Selena Roundtree saw when she woke up.
Emerald-cut.
Huge.
On her left ring finger.
Selena screamed.
She shot upright, grabbed her pounding head, and stared around a bedroom larger than her Queens apartment.
Mahogany furniture.
Black marble fireplace.
Cathedral-high windows pouring pale September light across white silk sheets.
And absolutely no memory of choosing any of it.
Then a man appeared in the doorway.
“Good morning, Mrs. Flores.”
Selena froze.
Everyone in New York knew Dempster Flores.
At least, they knew the public version.
Billionaire chairman of Flores International Logistics.
Luxury hotels.
Shipping.
Real estate.
Private aviation.
And according to crime columns, sealed investigations, and people who lowered their voices when his name came up—
Something far more dangerous.
He carried coffee, water, toast, and aspirin.
Somehow that made everything worse.
“Do not come closer.”
Dempster stopped immediately.
“Where am I?”
“My home in Alpine.”
“Why?”
His eyes flicked toward the ring.
“You married me last night.”
Selena laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
“No.”
“We did.”
“I was drunk.”
“I know.”
Her fear became fury so fast she threw a pillow at him.
Dempster caught it with one hand.
“You psychopath!”
“I expected that.”
Memory arrived in ugly fragments.
A Manhattan charity gala.
Her ex-boyfriend, Alidoro Wright, standing beside his beautiful new fiancée.
The canapé in Selena’s hand.
Alidoro looking at it and saying, “Still brave around carbohydrates, I see.”
His friends laughing.
His fiancée asking where Selena bought dresses “in extended sizing.”
Two years with Alidoro had trained Selena to hate photographs, mirrors, restaurant menus, and her own size-eighteen body.
He bought dresses too small and called them motivation.
Ordered salads for her without asking.
Took her financial models and presented them as his own.
Then left her.
Six months later, he invited her to a gala and humiliated her all over again.
Selena remembered fleeing to the bar.
Tequila.
Then Dempster sitting beside her.
Telling her Alidoro was an idiot.
Telling her she was beautiful.
Then—
Selena looked at the ring.
“Oh, God.”
Dempster’s face became serious.
“You are not trapped here.”
She stared at him.
“If you want to leave, a car will take you anywhere. If, after you understand what happened, you want an annulment, you’ll have one.”
Selena slowly pulled at the ring.
It moved.
He really would let her take it off.
“What happened last night?”
Dempster’s expression changed completely.
“Your ex-boyfriend tried to sell you to settle a debt.”
Selena stopped breathing.
“Alidoro?”
“Yes.”
“What does that even mean?”
Dempster took one step closer.
She stiffened.
He stopped.
“May I give you the coffee?”
After a moment, Selena nodded.
He placed the cup within reach and moved away again.
“How much did he owe?”
May you like
“Five million dollars.”
The coffee trembled between her hands.
