“Please be assured I am here with their blessing. They know why I am here. I will still visit them, from time to time, if you do not mind and my new job permits me. And if Hélène’s new fiancé does not mind, of course.”

“Your ex-wife is getting remarried?”

“Oui, and to someone you know – Victoire.”

I gaped at him and he laughed at my expression.

“It is true – they began dating just two months ago and already, he has asked her to be his wife. What a hopeless romantic, eh? God has quite the sense of humor, non?”

I smiled at him through my tears and began laughing again. And then he got down on one knee and pulled out the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen in my whole life.

“So what do you say, ma petite. Will you make me the happiest man alive? Will you say yes?”

I hesitated. I’d been lied to before, hurt before. Could I risk getting hurt again? I didn’t know if my heart could take it.

I took a deep breath. “No,” I said.

Sebastian turned deathly pale.

“No?” he echoed, his voice cracking on the word.