---- finally breaking. "Get away from her!" He grabbed Vincent and tried to drag him toward the door. But Vincent suddenly broke free, lunging toward me like a madman. "Isabella! I love you! I swear to God, I love you!" Alexander threw himself in front of me, and the two men began to fight. "She's my wife!" Vincent yelled, throwing a wild punch. "She's my fiancée!" Alexander shot back, blocking the blow and returning one of his own. His fist connected squarely with Vincent's nose. Vincent staggered back, blood gushing from his nostrils and dripping onto the pristine white carpet. "You're engaged?" he stared at us, his world visibly shattering. Iheld up my left hand. The diamond ring glittered under the lights, a beacon ---- of my new life. ''We're getting married in Switzerland in three months." When Vincent saw the ring, the last flicker of light in his eyes died completely. "No... that's not possible..." he shook his head, muttering to himself. 'You're my wife... you can only be my wife..." The guards finally managed to restrain him, piling on top of him. "Call the police," Alexander said, his voice calm but firm. "This man is trespassing, intimidating, and assaulting." "Don't call the police!" Vincent struggled, his voice pleading. "Isabella, for the love we once had, give me one more chance! Just one!" I looked down at him, pinned to the floor. Once, he had looked down at me just like this as I begged for my life, for our child's life. The memory was a shard of glass in my heart. ---- "What we had?" The words were quiet, but they cut deeper than a shout. "You mean the years you let me believe I was broken, while you knew the truth? The art you stole from me? The child you murdered? That's not a marriage, Vincent. That's a damnation." "It was a misunderstanding! It was all Sophia's plan! "Vincent sobbed, tears and blood mixing on his face. I already made her pay! I made her life a living hell!" "so what?" I crouched, my face inches from his. "You made her pay? Good. Now tell me how that brings my baby back. Tell me how it un-breaks my spirit. Tell me how it erases the sound of the world laughing at the madwoman you created." "I can make it up to you! I'll give you everything! All my money!" "T don't need your money," I stood up, brushing the dust from my gown as if he had contaminated it. ---- "T have a life I built from the ashes you left me. Aman who sees me, not a prize to be owned. And a future. And you?" I didn't need to gesture. I just looked at him. "You have a legacy of ruin. And you're its only heir." I gestured to his pathetic state on the floor. "You have nothing." The guards dragged Vincent out. He kept looking back at me, his eyes a bottomless pit of despair. "Isabella! I'll wait for you forever!" he yelled as the door slammed shut. "I'll wait until the day you forgive me!" "Then you'll die waiting," I said, not to the doorway, but to the ghost of the man I once loved, finally setting it free.