After I Returned the Ring, the Billionaire Lost Everything

There was an unwritten rule among the Capital's elite circle.

When a man's new lover wanted to claim her place, the woman she was replacing had to remove the Matriarch's Jade Ring in front of everyone and slide it onto the new woman's finger herself.

The day Mick Gilbert brought Olympia Fox home, every socialite in the Capital was waiting for me to tear his house apart.

I had been at Mick's side for seven years. For that ring, I'd knelt in the Gilbert family's ancestral hall for three days and three nights. I'd even taken a bayonet blade for him.

Everyone was certain I would never give up my place without a fight.

But when Olympia walked up to me in her million-dollar couture, all doe-eyed innocence, and held out her hand—

I didn't make a scene. I calmly slipped the warm jade ring from my finger and placed it on hers.

Mick stood nearby, swirling his wine glass, his eyes full of arrogance and satisfaction.

"Jill Weiss Chambers. You've finally learned your place."

I lowered my gaze to my bare ring finger and said nothing.

What Mick didn't know was this:

A month ago, every memory I'd lost had come flooding back.

I was the true-born daughter of the Weiss family—the wealthiest dynasty in Harbor Bay—missing for seven years.

In three days, my eldest brother's private fleet of jets would land in the Capital to take me home.

——

The Gilbert estate glittered that evening, its grand hall packed with silk gowns and designer suits.

Olympia Fox raised her hand, showing off the Matriarch's Jade Ring to the circle of socialites around her.

Gasps rippled through the crowd, followed by pitying, mocking glances cast toward the corner where I stood.

Mick Gilbert sat at the head of the table, his gaze drifting toward me every now and then.

Once Olympia had soaked up enough admiration, she picked up a champagne flute and sauntered over.

Her eyes dropped to my neck.

There, against my collarbone, hung an extraordinarily rare pink diamond necklace. Three years ago, on my birthday, Mick had bid eighty million dollars for it at Sotheby's.

Olympia let out a soft laugh and leaned close to my ear.

"Jill, since you've already handed over the ring, don't you think it's a little inappropriate for you to still be wearing the lady of the house's jewelry?"

She reached for the necklace.

I stepped back.

Olympia used the momentum to tilt the champagne flute in her hand.

Pale gold liquid splashed across the front of my silk gown.

A sharp crack followed as the glass slipped from her fingers and shattered across the marble floor.

Olympia immediately clutched the back of her hand, her eyes flooding red, fat tears rolling down her cheeks in an instant.

"Jill, I just thought the necklace was pretty and wanted a closer look. If you didn't want to show me, you could've just said so. Why did you have to push me?"

The music stopped.

Every pair of eyes in the hall turned toward us.

For the past seven years, any woman who tried to get close to Mick or provoke me had been thrown out without mercy. I had once shoved a starlet's face into a cake in front of the entire Capital's elite for trying to crawl into his bed.

Mick crossed the hall in long strides and pulled Olympia behind him.

He looked down at the faint red mark on the back of her hand, and his brow furrowed tight.

"Jill, what the hell is wrong with you? Olympia just got back to the country. Why are you going after her?"

His voice dripped with undisguised favoritism and reproach.

I stared at that face—the face I had once loved down to the marrow of my bones—and felt a dull ache deep in my chest.

I drew a slow breath and forced the sting behind my eyes back down.

I didn't explain. I didn't lose my temper.

I lifted my hands, reached behind my neck, and unclasped the Pink Diamond Necklace.

Under the stunned gazes of everyone in the room, I held it out to Olympia.

"You like it? Then it's yours. I lost my footing just now. I'm sorry."