Chapter 0196

Shocked, I turn to her as she clasps my hand, pulling it closer to her so that she can stare at my ring.

“He gave it to you?” she asks, looking up into my face with wide eyes. “This engagement ring?”

I hesitate, a little shocked. “Yes?” I reply, hoping it’s the right answer. “Daniel thought it would be...good. For me to have his

mother’s ring.”

I'm a little shocked by Natalia’s reaction as she turns her eyes once again to the sparkling diamond and then drops my hand as if

it's a hot coal. She turns her face up to mine again, glaring at me as she grabs her drink. “Don’t be a fool, girl,” she sneers. “That

ring was never Daniel's. If you have it, it's because he wanted you to.”

And then Natalia spins and walks away faster than I’ve seen her move before, her elegance and poise ruffled for a moment. As

she walks, though I see Natalia straighten her shoulders and smooth out her steps, as if our strange encounter never happened.

“Hey,” Daniel says at my side, and I jump a little. I had been so focused on Natalia that I didn’t see him coming.

“Hey,” I say, giving him a brief little smile, and then I reach for his drink on the bar and hand it to him, taking my glass of prosecco

as well.

“What was that all about?” he asks, looking after Natalia’s retreated form. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her...perturbed before.”

“She got upset,” I say, turning and frowning after her, “when she saw my engagement ring.”

“Oh,” Daniel says, raising his eyebrows and then nodding with understanding. “Well, that makes sense,” he says, giving a little

shrug and putting his arm around my waist, guiding away from the bar and towards a little bench underneath a rose arch, where

we're alone.

“Why does that make sense?” I ask, sitting down next to him and taking a sip of my drink, not really tasting it.

“Because,” Daniel says, grimacing a little. “That ring has...more history than we've told you before.”

“What?” I breathe, my eyes going wide. I look down at the ring again, shocked. “Is it — what’s wrong with it?” I know that it was

Lenai’s engagement ring — and, somehow, I had assumed that it came from her family, a Bianci heirloom passed from bride to

bride, and Daniel only got it because he was the only boy.

“Nothing’s wrong with it, but...” Daniel hesitates. “Well. Let me start at the beginning.”

I sit next to him, tense, desperately wanting to know but having no idea where the hell this is going.