THE BILLIONAIRE OF NOB HILL

CHAPTER 8: THE $2 MILLION RING

The ring box clicked open.

Elena stopped breathing.

It wasn’t a ring. It was a weapon. A 5-carat oval diamond in the center, so clear it looked like ice, surrounded by a halo of smaller diamonds that caught the morning light from the study window and threw it all over the ceiling. The thin platinum band was almost invisible. The price tag, which Margaret had clearly forgotten to remove in her rush, was tucked under the velvet: $2,100,000.

“This is a joke,” Elena whispered. Her voice was hoarse. She hadn’t slept in two days.

Julian didn’t look up from his laptop. He was typing an email, his jaw sharp, his white shirt crisp. “It’s not a joke. It’s a Croft heirloom. My mother wore it the day she married my father. It’s been in a safe for twelve years. Try it on.”

“I can’t wear a house on my finger! My mother’s house in Manila costs less than this!”

“Exactly,” he said, finally looking at her. His blue eyes were cold again, all the strange softness from last night gone. “Tomorrow we have dinner with the entire board of Croft Holdings. Eight men who think I am too young and too reckless to be CEO. They need to believe that I am in love. That I am stable. They need to believe you love me enough to marry me in two weeks. That ring does half the job for you.”

Before she could throw the ring back at his face, her phone rang, loud and shrill on his mahogany desk. MOM was flashing on the screen.

Panic shot through her blood. It was 11:14 PM in Manila. Her mother never called this late unless someone was dying.

“Hello? Mama? What happened?” Her hand was shaking so badly she almost dropped the phone.

“Elena! Anak! Who is Julian Croft and why did he just pay for my full treatment? The hospital just called me! At 11 PM! They said a man from San Francisco named Julian Croft paid $80,000 for my dialysis for one full year! They said you are getting married next week! Elena, is it true you are pregnant? The nurse said -”

Elena’s knees gave out. She sank into the leather chair opposite Julian, her hand flying to her mouth. She looked at Julian, her eyes wide, begging him to do something, to stop this.

He had done it. He had paid. Without telling her. Without asking.

He finally stood up, walked around the desk, and gently took the phone from her shaking hand. His fingers brushed hers.

“Put her on speaker,” he mouthed, but he already pressed the button.

“Mrs. Reyes? This is Julian Croft. I sincerely apologize for not introducing myself properly and for calling so late. I should have asked Elena first.”

His voice changed completely. The cold billionaire was gone. Now he sounded warm, respectful, a little nervous, like a proper Filipino son-in-law. Elena stared at him, stunned at how smoothly he could lie.

“Yes, I love your daughter,” he continued, looking straight into Elena’s tear-filled eyes as he said it. “Yes, she is carrying my child. Our child. And yes, I will take care of both of you. I have already arranged for the best nephrologist in Manila to take over your case. You will not worry about money again. I promise you that as a gentleman.”

There was a long, heavy pause on the other side. Then her mother, a strong woman who had never cried when her husband died, sobbed into the phone.

“Mr. Croft... Elena has a big heart. She gives everything to everybody. She gave her last money to our neighbor. Don’t break her heart. Please. She is all I have.”

“I won’t,” Julian said, his voice dropping low, and for a second Elena almost believed him. “I won’t break her heart. I will protect it.”

He ended the call gently and handed the phone back to her. The study was silent except for Elena’s ragged breathing.

“You paid for my mother?” she whispered, tears now falling freely down her cheeks, hot and angry. “$80,000? Why would you do that without telling me?”

“Condition number four,” he said quietly, wiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb before she could slap his hand away. “You wrote: Full custody? You think I would let the mother of my child worry about her own mother dying while she lives under my roof? I told you, Elena. I’m ruthless in business. I’m not heartless with my family.”

He stepped closer. He smelled like expensive cologne and coffee. He took her left hand, his palm warm and large around hers.

“Now wear the ring, wife.”

He slid the $2 million diamond onto her trembling ring finger. It fit perfectly. Of course it did. He knew her ring size, her bank balance, her mother’s blood type. He knew everything.

Elena looked down at her hand. At the ring that cost more than her entire life and her mother’s life combined. At the man who had just saved her mother with one phone call and trapped her with another.

For the first time since she met Julian Croft, the Billionaire of Nob Hill, she wasn’t sure if she was still pretending to be trapped.

Or if she was starting to want to stay.

Outside, a black SUV screeched to a halt in front of the mansion. A door slammed. Margaret’s frantic voice came screaming from downstairs, up the marble staircase.

“Mr. Croft! Mr. Croft! The press is here! Someone from SF General leaked the engagement! Daily Mail is here! And - and - Miss Victoria is with them!”

Julian’s face, which had softened for a second, turned to pure ice. His hand tightened around Elena’s until the diamond dug into her skin.

“Victoria?” Elena asked. “Who is Victoria?”

Julian didn’t answer. He stared out the window at the flashing cameras below. A tall, blonde woman in a red dress was stepping out of the black SUV, smiling at the press like she owned the mansion.

“My ex-fiancée,” Julian said, his voice deadly quiet. “And she just told the press she is three months pregnant with my child too.”