"We're done," Sebastien said across the candlelit table.
"Excuse me?" Isabella set her spoon down with a sound that matched her anger.
"You heard me," he said. "You can't be the Benjamin matriarch."
A murmur ran around the table. Glasses paused halfway to mouths. Lucia's lips curved the wrong way. Flashbulbs at the far end clicked like a machine gun.
"You're breaking up with me in front of the press," Isabella said. "Now?"
Sebastien's hand landed on an envelope. He slid it to the center of the table as if pushing a bill across a casino table.
"Sign this," he said. "It's a release. No claims, no appearances, no demands. You walk away with what I offer and you never show your face at a Benjamin function again."
"Is that what you think I am?" Isabella snapped. "A check to be bought off? I built my life around—"
"You built your life around a name," he cut in. "Not around what a Benjamin needs. The board won't accept your family history. The social circles won't accept your friends. I won't let you damage the company when it's my turn."
Lucia laughed softly. "Isabel, darling, don't make a scene."
Isabella's fingers found the pendant at her throat. The necklace was a gift—crystal glass inside a silver frame. She remembered the first time he'd clasped it behind her, smiling like he had her world in his hands. She
