Chapter 2 - The Ring of Iron
Vanessa flinched as if she had been slapped. Tyler stepped in front of her, trying to puff out his chest, though his knees were visibly shaking.
"Mr. Fierro," Tyler stammered, sweating through his tuxedo collar. "I'm Tyler Vance... CEO of Vance Logistics. Jessica is my ex-wife. We divorced five years ago. I know for a fact she hasn't seen anyone. She raises my child on a nurse's salary. There is no way she is married to a man of your... stature."
Giovanni let go of my waist, but his left hand gently slid down my arm until his fingers locked securely into mine.
"You left her when she was pregnant, didn't you, Vance?" Giovanni asked, taking a step toward them.
Tyler swallowed hard. "I... I was young. It was a mutual separation."
"You left her with nothing while you embezzled three million dollars from her father's estate to fund your logistics startup," Giovanni corrected smoothly, his voice echoing in the dead silence of the hall.
My head snapped toward Giovanni in absolute shock. Embezzled?
My father gasped from his table, dropping his champagne glass! It shattered loudly against the marble!
"What did you just say?!" my father shouted, rushing toward us. "Tyler used my money?!"
"Check your Cayman trust accounts from 2021, Mr. Hale," Giovanni said without even looking at my father. "Your brilliant new son-in-law stole from you to buy his way into the Vance family name."
Tyler turned deathly pale. "That's... that's a lie!"
Giovanni reached into his inner jacket pocket. Every man in the room took half a step back. But instead of a weapon, Giovanni pulled out a velvet box.
He opened it, revealing a magnificent twelve-carat canary diamond ring flanked by platinum bands.
May you like
Before I could speak, Giovanni took my left hand, slipped the heavy, glittering ring onto my ring finger, and brought my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles right in front of my ex-husband.
"We were married in secret in Naples three weeks ago," Giovanni announced loudly to the entire ballroom. "And if anyone in this room—including her pathetic ex-husband or her neglectful family—disrespects my wife again, I will personally buy their debt and destroy them by morning."
