Chapter 14 - The Ring Comes Off
The bullet struck stone.
Dempster tackled Charles before he fired again.
Federal agents swarmed them.
Helena survived.
Charles was arrested.
Meridian finally collapsed.
Weeks of indictments followed.
Executives resigned.
Accounts froze.
Properties were seized.
The hidden reserve fund was recovered.
Dempster voluntarily surrendered assets tied to his father’s criminal era.
Flores International survived, smaller but legitimate.
Wright Holdings did not.
Selena used her controlling stake to restructure it.
She restored Marianne Roundtree’s name to the company history.
Then she did something nobody expected.
She resigned.
“You fought for control just to leave?” Brooke asked.
Selena smiled.
“I fought for the right to choose.”
She launched Roundtree Systems.
Her company.
Her technology.
Her name.
No Alidoro.
No Dempster.
No inherited criminal empire.
Dempster invested nothing.
Not because he didn't believe in her.
Because Selena asked him not to.
Six months after the morning she woke wearing his ring, Selena stood in their bedroom.
The same bed.
The same windows.
The same man.
Everything had changed.
She removed the emerald ring.
Dempster watched quietly.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Their emergency marriage had served its purpose.
The legal danger was gone.
The annulment remained available.
Selena placed the ring in his palm.
Dempster closed his fingers around it.
Something hurt in his expression.
But he nodded.
“I’ll have the attorneys file tomorrow.”
Selena smiled.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No?”
“I don't want an annulment.”
Dempster went completely still.
“I want a divorce.”
His face changed.
Selena almost laughed.
“That sounds worse than I intended.”
“Significantly.”
She took his hand.
“I don't want the marriage I entered drunk, terrified and trying to escape another man’s trap.”
Understanding slowly entered his eyes.
“I want to choose you when I'm completely sober.”
Dempster stared at her.
Selena continued.
“I want my own proposal. My own yes. My own wedding.”
His voice dropped.
“Selena.”
“And this time, you're going to ask properly.”
A slow smile appeared.
“Demanding.”
“Very.”
“I like it.”
“I know.”
The legal dissolution took weeks.
On the morning it became final, Selena woke alone.
No ring.
No accidental husband.
No contract binding her to anyone.
She should have felt sad.
Instead she felt free.
At noon, Dempster texted.
Dinner tonight?
Selena replied.
Ask nicely.
Three dots appeared.
Then:
Selena Roundtree, would you allow me the terrifying privilege of buying you dinner?
She laughed.
Yes.
That evening, Dempster took her to the small Manhattan restaurant where her mother once celebrated Selena’s college graduation.
No mansion.
No guards at the table.
No diamonds.
Just them.
After dessert, Dempster reached into his jacket.
Selena’s breath caught.
He placed a tiny velvet box on the table.
Then another.
And another.
Selena stared.
“What are you doing?”
“I was told you should choose.”
She laughed so loudly the next table turned.
Inside were three rings.
None was his mother’s.
None carried a debt.
None came from fear.
Selena looked at him.
Dempster stood.
Then lowered himself onto one knee.
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, Dempster Flores looked genuinely uncertain.
“Selena Roundtree—”
A waiter suddenly approached.
“Mr. Flores?”
Dempster looked up.
The waiter handed him an envelope.
“No sender.”
Selena’s smile disappeared.
Dempster opened it.
Inside was the emerald ring.
The one Selena had returned.
Beneath it was a note.
Dempster read the first sentence.
His face went white.
Selena reached across the table.
“What does it say?”
He slowly turned the note toward her.
The handwriting belonged to Marianne Roundtree.
May you like
And the message began:
Selena, if he ever asks you a second time, there is one last thing you need to know...
