The Ring He Stole

Chapter 1: The Ring

Rosalind's POV

Sebastian's hand rested against another woman's jaw the way it used to rest against mine, back when he still remembered how.

I'd driven across town in traffic to bring him the folder he'd forgotten on the kitchen counter that morning, the one he'd called me twice about, panicked, insisting he needed it before six. I'd changed dresses twice before settling on the green one he liked. Checked my lipstick in the elevator mirror on the way up, out of habit more than hope. Smoothed my hair one more time in the hallway outside the private dining room, the way I always did before walking into any room with his name attached to it. I was still holding the folder when I saw his hand on her face.

I stood three feet from our table and he hadn't noticed me yet. I had time to leave. I didn't take it.

His thumb moved along her cheekbone, slow, familiar, the same motion he used to trace along mine before bed on the nights he still remembered I existed. She tilted her head into it the way I used to. I recognized the gesture from the inside, which made it worse somehow, watching someone else receive the one small tenderness I'd spent three years rationing myself into believing was enough.

The folder slipped from my fingers and hit the floor, papers fanning out across the marble. Neither of them looked down.

Who is she?

Sebastian's head snapped up. The woman's laugh died in her throat. She reached for her wine glass like she needed something to do with her hands, fingers shaking around the stem, eyes flicking between the two of us like she was waiting for someone else to explain what was happening.

Rosalind. Sebastian said my name careful, measured, like he was choosing words for a boardroom instead of a marriage. This isn't what it looks like.

It's exactly what it looks like.

I reached down and slid the ring off my finger. It took two tries to get it over my knuckle, my hand not quite steady enough to cooperate. Three years of gold worn thin from the number of times I'd twisted it while waiting for him to notice me, at dinners he canceled, at nights he came home too late to explain, at every quiet moment I'd convinced myself meant nothing. I remembered the jeweler's box it came in, the small velvet click of the lid, how certain I'd been standing in that store that this ring meant the beginning of something instead of a slow unraveling with a nice setting.

I set it on the white tablecloth, next to his wine glass.

Congratulations. You no longer have to lie.

Sebastian's mouth opened, some excuse already forming behind his teeth, but I was already turning away, blinking fast, refusing to let this be the place I fell apart. My heel caught the edge of the folder on the floor and I stepped over it without picking it up. It didn't matter anymore. None of it did.

I made it four steps before the room tilted sideways and something cold hit my chest.

Wine. I'd walked straight into someone. My palm hit a suit jacket as I caught myself, fingers splayed against fabric so fine I registered the quality even through the roaring in my ears.

I looked up.

The man was tall enough that I had to tilt my head back. Silver eyes fixed on the stain spreading across his lapel like it had personally offended him. Dark hair combed back without a strand out of place.

I'm sorry. I reached for the napkin at the nearest table. Let me.

Don't.

He stepped back from my hand like I was something contagious. A waiter two tables over stopped mid-pour. Nobody told him to.

Behind me, footsteps. Fast ones.

Sebastian's voice arrived before he did. Mr. Kane, I am so sorry, please, let me have this handled, she's been under a lot of stress lately.

He was apologizing. Not to me. Past me, around me, like I was a mess he needed to clean up before the important man noticed the smell.

I turned slowly. Sebastian wouldn't meet my eyes. He was too busy watching Kane's face, gauging the damage, already calculating what this would cost him. I recognized that look. I'd seen it every time he negotiated a contract, every time something threatened to cost him money or standing. I'd just never been on the losing end of it before tonight. Three years of dinners where I watched him wear that exact expression across a table from men in similar suits, and I'd always been the one on his side of it. Not anymore.

You're not even embarrassed? My voice cracked on the second word and I hated it. You're just worried about him.

Sebastian's jaw tightened. You're making a scene, Rosalind.

When, then? Later, when we're home and you can explain how this was somehow my fault too?

A fork stopped halfway to someone's mouth. A woman leaned toward her husband and whispered without looking away. My hands wouldn't stay still, one gripping the strap of my purse so hard my knuckles went white. Somewhere in the back of my mind I registered how many people were watching, cataloging every second of this for a story they'd tell tomorrow, and some small stubborn part of me refused to give them the tears they were waiting for.

I made myself stay still anyway.

Kane hadn't moved. His eyes went from Sebastian to me. Then back to Sebastian.

Sebastian turned to him, voice sliding into the smooth, urgent register he used with clients. Mr. Kane, truly, I'll cover the cleaning, the suit, anything you need.

Kane didn't look at him.

Interesting priorities, he said.

Sebastian's face went slack. Somewhere behind me, someone choked on a laugh and covered it with a cough.

Kane bent down, picked the ring up off the table, and turned it once between his fingers. Something flickered across his face, there and gone before I could name it. For a moment I thought he might say something. He didn't.

He closed it into his palm.

I watched him do it and said nothing at all. There was nothing left in me to say. I'd used my last steady breath on the sentence I'd already spoken, and whatever came out of my mouth next would have come out broken.

He walked away before anyone could answer him. He didn't hurry. He didn't look back. My ring disappeared through the restaurant doors in his fist, and I stood there with wine soaking my dress, a folder of forgotten papers scattered across the floor behind me, and nothing left to hold on to.

Sebastian said my name once, quiet, like he expected me to stay. I didn't turn around. I bent down instead, not for the ring, that was already gone, but for the folder, gathering the scattered pages back into their sleeve with hands that had finally stopped shaking. I set it on the nearest empty table, squared the edges like it mattered, like tidiness was the last thing I still had control over.

Then I picked up my purse and walked past him, past the table, past the woman who still hadn't found anything to say for herself, past the host stand where a young woman in black pretended very hard not to have witnessed any of it.

The valet outside asked if I needed a car. I said I'd manage. Behind me, through the glass doors, I could still see the shape of the room I'd just left, the low gold light, the shift of bodies returning to their own conversations now that the entertainment had ended. My hands had stopped shaking. My voice hadn't cracked again. Whatever came next, I intended to walk into it standing up.

Nobody stopped me at the door.