Chapter 3

For a second, I wanted to slap myself.

How bored did I have to be to walk out of that estate and try to reason with a pack of gutter rats? I should have thrown the gold-foil invitation in their faces and made them kneel down and read it.

But my silence read to them as an admission of guilt.

"See? Nothing to say now. She knew the boss was proposing tonight, and she wore this on purpose to wreck it. Evil, seriously."

"I used to think she was just a brainless lapdog. Now I see she's a poison bitch. No wonder the boss won't even touch her."

"A slut like that should be run off this block and never come back."

I'd heard variations on this for years. It didn't even ripple the surface anymore.

Then one of them bellowed: "Boss! Since this woman won't take the hint, why not put the ring on Mia right now and put some people out of their misery!"

"Yeah! Propose! Propose! Propose!"

The chant was deafening. Mia flushed with a practiced modesty and gave Lucas's chest a coy little swat. "Stop encouraging them. Lucas and I have only been together a little while — a ring is too soon..."

Too soon, she said, while her eyes were glued to my couture gown, greed and hunger plain in them.

Lucas didn't disappoint them. A wicked smile curled his mouth.

"I was going to wait for a better moment to ask you. But since someone is so desperate to be humiliated, I'll exercise my rights a little early."

And with that corny line, like a third-rate magician, he fished a cheap silver band out of the pocket of his ratty leather jacket.

I wasn't surprised. He and Mia had been sneaking around long enough — the junk was probably bought weeks ago.

Suddenly the gang was whistling and shrieking loud enough to split my eardrums.

Then Tommy jumped up, grabbed the antique diamond tiara off my head, and yanked.

"Ah—" My scalp caught fire; a clump of hair came out with it.

Tommy offered my tiara up to Lucas with a sycophantic bow of his head.

Lucas didn't spare a thought for my pain. He set my tiara on Mia's head, then went down on one knee.

"Mia. The first time I saw you on this block, I was gone. Every day with you, I feel like the luckiest man in New York."

"I want to have you forever. Mia, marry me."

Mia's eyes filled with tears. Before he'd even finished, she threw herself at him and locked her arms around his neck.

"Yes! I will!"

Lucas's crew went berserk — dancing in a ring around the two of them, popping a bottle of cheap champagne and spraying it everywhere, more excited than if they'd proposed themselves.