Chapter 4

The next instant, the car window rolled down. Diana flung Vivienne's clutch bag straight out.

"It's just in the way," Diana drawled. "What could a housewife possibly have that matters?"

Sebastian's voice was light. "You're probably right."

The sounds from inside the car resumed -- each one landing on Vivienne like a fresh cut, draining another shade of color from her face.

Trembling, she crouched down and picked up the divorce papers, now soaked through by a puddle.

From dusk until dark, Sebastian finally pushed open the car door.

A flush lingered on his face -- one he himself seemed unaware of. He walked over to take her hand as if nothing had happened.

Vivienne glanced at the still-damp upholstery on the seat.

"No, thank you. I find it disgusting too."

She climbed into the assistant's car on her own.

Sebastian, assuming she was upset over the earlier confrontation and had gotten dirt on her clothes, frowned and followed her in. His long fingers reached for a wet cloth and gently wiped at her brow.

"A little dust, that's all. Our Viv is never dirty -- always the most beautiful girl in the room, no matter what."

He smiled, the softness in his eyes deep enough to drown any woman who looked too long.

Vivienne met his gaze directly. She wanted to smile back, the way he did -- as if nothing had happened.

But the corners of her eyes reddened instead, and two tears fell straight down.

"Sebastian. You forgot to sign the document."

She held out the papers, red-eyed. Sebastian, thrown into a panic at the sight of her crying, didn't even glance at them before scrawling his signature and frantically saying, "Whatever you hand me, I'll sign. You could sell Caldwell Corp and I'd sign for it."

What if it were divorce papers? Vivienne swallowed the question before it reached her lips.

Sebastian spent the entire drive home making promises -- he would deal with Diana, and there would be a surprise waiting for her tonight.

They arrived at the new cemetery. It was immaculate, just as he said.

Sebastian knelt solemnly before the headstone and pressed his forehead to the ground three times. "Ma'am, I'm taking good care of Vivienne. I'll protect her peace for the rest of my life."

Looking at his tall frame bowing before her mother's grave, Vivienne felt something shift, just for a moment.

When the Caldwell family had stood against them, Sebastian had knelt before the ancestral altar in the clan hall and knocked his head against the ground until his face was raw and bleeding -- and he had said only one thing:

"Sebastian Caldwell will marry no one but Vivienne Hartley. I beg my ancestors to allow it."

He had never broken that vow. He had married her.

It was just that love and a divided heart were not mutually exclusive.

Marriage and faithfulness were two entirely different things.

Sebastian rose and reached into his coat, producing a photograph.

Vivienne's eyes lit up. It was her family portrait from childhood.

After the Hartley family fell from fortune in her early years, the house was auctioned off and everything inside disappeared, including every photograph they'd ever had.

"Tracked it down across the globe -- found it in the hands of a collector. I knew you'd be happy to have it back."

Sebastian's eyes were bright with the look of a man presenting a treasure -- almost boyish in his excitement.

Vivienne accepted the photograph. Something stirred in her deadened heart.

But then a sharp, acrid stench struck her without warning.

Diana appeared from nowhere, hugging a basin of chicken blood -- and hurled it directly at her mother's headstone.

The pristine marble was drenched in filth.

Vivienne's pupils contracted. She stepped forward and shoved Diana aside.

"Diana! Come after me if you want -- what kind of person desecrates a dead woman's grave?"

The repeated violation of her mother's resting place ignited something raw and uncontrolled in Vivienne's chest.

But mindful that Diana was still Jasper's birth mother, she had held back.

Diana, however, reacted as though she had been struck by a battering ram -- letting out a shriek and crashing dramatically to the ground.

Sebastian's eyes snapped to her in an instant. He crossed the distance in three steps and caught Diana in his arms. "Diana -- are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"How could you do this to her--"

The words that rose instinctively to Sebastian's lips -- instinct born of his panic over Diana -- died the moment he looked up and saw Vivienne's ashen face.

The emptiness in her eyes was frightening. And she was staring directly at his arms, wrapped tight around Diana.

For one fractured second, Sebastian's gaze faltered.

But then Diana began to cry.

And he could no longer spare a thought for anything else. He lifted Diana into his arms and strode away.

"Viv, Diana is a critical business partner for Caldwell Corp. She can't afford to be injured. I'm taking her to the doctor -- I'll come back for you soon."

He carried Diana out at a near-run, urgency overtaking him.

He didn't look back once -- not at the headstone soaked in blood, and not at the dead, hollow look in Vivienne's eyes.

She crouched there, using her own clothes to scrub the filth from the stone.

The tears that finally came dropped one by one onto her mother's photograph.

Mom -- that man who just knelt and swore he'd protect me forever -- I don't believe him anymore.

He's the best liar in the world. Don't believe him either, okay?

The blood and grime smeared into one another. Vivienne's heart felt like it was being carved open.

And then a crew of workers came crashing through, shouting and laughing -- and when they spotted Vivienne, a few of them exchanged a look and grinned.

"Mr. Caldwell's orders -- everything at the site gets cleared into the ground."

Strong hands grabbed her and threw her into an open grave that had yet to be filled.