After Marrying His Rival, My Ex Begged on His Knees

### Chapter 1

At the engagement banquet, Dustin Delgado learned that his childhood sweetheart was being matched with his crippled arch-rival.

His expression shifted in an instant. He cornered me, demanding I hand over the Blood Jade Bracelet—the Delgado family heirloom that marked me as the young mistress of the house—and give it to Gabriella Hughes. His tone left no room for argument.

"Hurry up! There's no way Gabriella is marrying that impotent cripple. I won't let him ruin her life."

I had loved Dustin Delgado for ten years. I'd lived under the Delgado roof for five. I'd thrown myself in front of a car for him while carrying his child. The baby didn't survive. I nearly didn't either. And still, somehow, I'd clawed my way to this moment.

Everyone was watching, waiting for me to make a scene—waiting for me to become the punchline.

But looking at the man in front of me, so familiar and yet so foreign, his face cold enough to freeze my blood, I felt something inside me go quiet. The deepest grief is a heart that's already dead.

I smiled.

"Fine. She can have it."

Surprise flickered across Dustin's face. Gabriella, draped in her wedding gown and nestled in his arms, stopped crying on cue. A saccharine smile bloomed across her lips as she extended her hand toward me.

With perfect calm, I unclasped the Blood Jade Bracelet and slid it onto her pale, slender wrist.

Only then did Dustin spare me a satisfied glance.

"Delia Sullivan. Know your place. You owe me."

I looked down at my bare wrist and smiled in silence. But I never owed you anything.

That same day, Dustin's private jet carried him and Gabriella to Dubai for their advance "honeymoon."

He assumed I would do what I always did—stand in place and wait for him to come home.

What Dustin didn't know was that shortly after he left, his crippled arch-rival came knocking.

"I'm the kind of man who never lets a slight go unanswered. Delgado stole my fiancée. I'm not about to swallow that quietly."

"Mr. Simmons, what exactly are you suggesting?"

Les Simmons sat in his wheelchair, but his bearing was anything but diminished. He looked like a leopard lying in wait, eyes half-lidded with lazy menace.

"Miss Sullivan, how would you feel about making a trip to City Hall with me?"

I glanced at the photo blowing up across Harbor City's elite circles—the two of them locked in a romantic hot-air-balloon kiss. Without a second's hesitation, I grabbed my documents and headed straight for City Hall with Les Simmons.

It wasn't until I saw our faces printed side by side on the marriage certificate that it finally sank in.

I was married.

And my husband wasn't Dustin Delgado, the man I'd loved for years. He was the man Dustin hated most in the world.

"Now that we've signed the papers, you're my wife." Les tapped his slender fingers lightly against my wrist, his smile dangerously charming. "When are you coming home with me?"

"Give me ten days. I need to wrap things up here."

He hummed in acknowledgment. "Then we'll hold the wedding in ten days. It's tight, but I promise you—I won't cut a single corner."

He gestured for me to lean down.

Then he pinned a platinum diamond brooch to my chest, its center set with a Colombian emerald that caught the light like a living thing.

"This was my great-grandmother's hat pin. It protected my family for generations. Now it belongs to you."

When he finished, I caught sight of something beneath that rakish, devil-may-care face of his—the tips of his ears had turned a deep, burning red.

I couldn't help tracing my fingers over the brooch. A soft laugh escaped me. "I'll treasure it."

A week into the "honeymoon," Dustin Delgado finally remembered I existed.

"Landing tonight. Get everything ready—I want a Delgado Group dinner hosted this evening."

A phone call jolted me awake that morning. Not a single word asking how I'd been holding up these past days, trapped indoors while the entire social elite of Harbor City passed around my humiliation like party favors.

The same imperious tone. As if nothing had happened.

But it wasn't that nothing had happened. It was that my feelings, my needs, my entire existence weighed no more than a speck of dust in his mind.

Meanwhile, his "honeymoon" with Gabriella had been broadcasting in real time across Harbor City's upper circles for days.

I'd seen the photos. The two of them kissing passionately before sunrise at the Burj Khalifa. Tangled together in the thermal pools of Pamukkale. Exchanging solemn vows in a Spanish castle.

Every single one of those destinations had been on my dream honeymoon list. He'd made them all come true—just not with me.

"Answer me, Delia Sullivan. Are you deaf?"

When I didn't respond, Dustin's voice frosted over.

I pulled myself back.

"Got it." This is the last time, anyway. "I'll have everything ready."

For five years, every single one of Dustin Delgado's events had been my handiwork. Minimum budget, maximum spectacle—making him look like a king every time.

Dustin was silent for a beat.

"Remember. Without me, you're nothing but an orphan."

The line went dead.

What he didn't know was that in three days, my husband would be coming for me with the highest honors imaginable. I would become the youngest matriarch of the Simmons family—the wealthiest clan in the capital.

I worked through the day without stopping, and by the time I straightened up, it was already seven-thirty.

The Delgado dinner began right on schedule. The venue glittered with the city's elite.

Between the clinking of glasses, Gabriella appeared on Dustin's arm, timed to perfection.

They wore matching silver couture. Gabriella's mermaid gown shimmered under the chandelier light like liquid mercury.

She made a deliberate show of tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, ensuring every pair of eyes in the room landed on the Blood Jade Bracelet circling her wrist.

Gasps and flattery rippled through the crowd in waves.

"That's the Delgado family heirloom, isn't it? A piece like that truly belongs on someone like Miss Hughes."

"Can you imagine? That gold-digging woman who dumped Mr. Delgado for a better offer actually thought she deserved the Blood Jade Bracelet? Thought she could be the Delgado family's young mistress? What a joke."

Contemptuous stares cut toward me in the corner like a volley of knives.

Seven years ago, I'd steeled myself and broken things off with Dustin, then turned around and gotten engaged to his uncle, Marvin Delgado.

Within two years, Dustin had crushed Marvin and seized the position of heir for himself. The very first thing he did was bring me back to his side, over the objections of the entire Delgado family.

For five years I'd stood beside him, pulling the Delgado Group back from the brink of collapse with my own hands, pushing it higher than it had ever been.

And now, in their mouths, I was nothing but a vain, scheming social climber.

I didn't argue. I sat quietly in my seat, sipping the water in my glass.

Dustin didn't say a single word in my defense.

He moved through the crowd with a champagne flute, making small talk, shaking hands. Every now and then his gaze drifted over and landed on me.

Once Gabriella had soaked up every last drop of adoration, she sauntered over on her narrow waist, stopping in front of me.

Her red lips curved. Her eyes locked onto the ruby earrings dangling from my ears.

"Delia, darling, the bracelet is already mine. Don't you think those earrings don't really belong on you anymore either?"

Those earrings. Dustin had traded a deal worth over a hundred million dollars to acquire them, just so they'd match the Blood Jade Bracelet. A gift for me.

A malicious smile slid across Gabriella's face, and she reached for my ear.

I raised my hand on instinct to block her. I hadn't even touched her when she let out a theatrical yelp and crumpled to the ground.

When she stood back up, a red scrape marked her palm where it had grazed the stone floor.

She whimpered, her cry pitched high and piercing.

"It hurts... I just wanted to borrow them for a look. Why did you push me, Delia?"

I saw Dustin turn. The hum of the banquet hall died in the same instant his expression darkened.

He strode over, swept Gabriella into his arms, and stared at the red mark on her palm. Then he whipped his head toward me and roared.

"Who gave you permission to touch her?"

He had no intention of hearing a single word from me. Every syllable dripped with anguish for her and fury at me.

I looked at this man—the man I'd loved for ten years, the man I'd lost everything for—and a vicious cramp seized my stomach.

I closed my eyes and forced the tears back down by sheer will.

When I opened them again, there was no fight. No tantrum.

I raised my hand to my ear and gripped the ruby earrings.

Under the stunned gaze of every person in that room, I ripped them free. The posts tore through my earlobes. Beads of blood rolled down my neck.

Without a flicker of expression, I pressed the earrings into Gabriella's hand.

"You're right. I was out of line. Since you're the future mistress of the Delgado family, these were always meant to be yours."