Diamonds are Forever
A Diamond Magnate Novel
Charmaine Pauls
Published by Charmaine Pauls
Montpellier, 34090, France
www.charmainepauls.com
Published in France
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2020 by Charmaine Pauls
All rights reserved.
Photography by Wander Aguiar Photography LLC
Cover models Rodiney Santiago & Dina Auneau
Cover design by Simply Defined Art
ISBN: 978-2-491833-03-9 (eBook)
ISBN: 979-8-669930-48-6 (Print)
Created with Vellum
Contents
Foreword
Previously in Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2)
Diamonds are Forever
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Epilogue (Zoe)
Bonus Epilogue (Lina)
Afterword
Also by Charmaine Pauls
Book Blurbs
About the Author
Foreword
Diamonds are Forever is Book 3 in the Diamonds are Forever Trilogy and concludes the series. Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1) and Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2) must be read first to follow the story.
Read Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1)
Read Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2)
Previously in Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2)
A Short Summary
Maxime rescues Zoe from her jump off a cliff into the sea, acknowledging that she elicits fear he’d never felt before—the fear of losing her. Their explosive physical relationship slowly morphs into something deeper. Overbearingly possessive, Maxime makes a point of showing the whole of France that Zoe belongs to him. He takes her out in public frequently, leaving no doubt that Zoe is his.
Living in a foreign country with no alliances continues to be difficult. Zoe takes up learning French. Maxime’s ex-lover and housekeeper, Francine, is resentful of Zoe’s presence. A battle of wills ensues between the women when Francine spitefully throws out the granulated sugar, forcing Zoe to follow the French custom of using cubes.
In an effort to relieve the boredom resulting from keeping her captive, Maxime offers Zoe a sewing machine and her dream—to study clothing design at a prestigious school in Marseille. He keeps her in the dark about securing her entry via his position, making her believe she won her place in the school on her own merit. In an environment where competition is steep, Zoe’s unfair selection doesn’t win her any friends with her classmates or tutors.
Maxime’s manipulation knows no end. In order to make Zoe feel less lonely, he instructs his cousin, Sylvie, to befriend her. The women start a friendship in which Sylvie not only wins Zoe’s trust, but also convinces her, on Maxime’s order, to give Maxime a chance despite their unconventional relationship.
The fragile hope of happiness shatters when Zoe discovers Maxime’s deceit. Overcome with disappointment, she confronts Maxime during a formal dinner. On the same night, Maxime and Zoe are attacked. One of the guards is killed. Maxime goes after their attackers. Before he kills the mercenary, the man confesses he was hired to kill Zoe. Maxime made a crucial error in showing the world how much she means to him. Unknowingly, he’d shown his enemies that Zoe is his weakness. Her life is forever endangered.
After taking out the men responsible for the attack, Maxime finds Zoe in a state of shock. He finally gives in, telling her the reason for her kidnapping and also that he has no intention of ever sending her home. Trapped with no money, no passport, no friends, no phone or computer, and no means of escape, Zoe continues to write to Damian, but receives no letters in return.
During the difficult year that follows, Zoe gives the life she can’t change her best shot. As she falls deeper into their relationship, she starts to need more than physical affection, but Maxime is incapable of returning her feelings. A certified psychopath, he’s emotionally detached. Despite it all, they somehow manage to make their warped relationship work. When Zoe fails her school year after a disastrous fashion show, Maxime is there to support her.
Zoe’s fall is complete. She’s under her kidnapper’s spell, seduced by his kindness and lust. Just when Zoe believes they’ve finally reached a renewed level of happiness, her world once more comes crashing down when she learns about Maxime’s betrothal to the daughter of an Italian mafia boss to force an alliance between the families.
Maxime reassures Zoe that nothing between them has to change. The upcoming marriage is a business deal. When Zoe begs him to set her free for the sake of his future wife and herself, he refuses. As his wife will move into his house after the wedding, Zoe is moved to a luxurious apartment Maxime had designed especially for her. Vowing to never be a cheater, Zoe refuses Maxime’s advances. Maxime continues to shower her with kindness and patience. He vouches to give her time to grow used to the idea, but swears he’d never let her go.
Zoe tricks a guard into taking her back to Maxime’s house while he isn’t home to look for her passport and discovers her unsent letters to Damian. After drugging Maxime, she steals his phone and manages to contact Damian, learning to her shock that he’d been released from prison early, more than a year ago—another fact Maxime omitted. With Damian’s help, Zoe manages to escape and return to South Africa, leaving not only Maxime, but also her heart behind.
Diamonds are Forever
Book 3
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
A Diamond Magnate Novel
by
Charmaine Pauls
Preface
One dark day, a little girl hid in a broom closet and buried her soul in a fairy tale.
“One day, I’ll find my prince. He’ll buy me beautiful dresses and lots of pretty glasses, and he’ll never break them. He’ll take me very, very far away from here, and I’ll never come back. Just wait and see.”
And then she grew up and her wish was fulfilled. Only, she didn’t find her prince. The villain found her. He stole her dreams and made them come true. He took her far away, and wou
ldn’t ever let her go back.
Chapter 1
Maxime
“She’s gone, sir.”
I stop dead in my parents’ lounge with the phone pressed against my ear. The words bounce off my ribcage and echo in my chest. Damning words. Fearful words. Words I never thought I’d hear.
Everything inside me comes to a standstill—my heart, my breathing, and even my ability to think. The message slams straight into me like you’d collide with someone who suddenly stops in front of you. Those rare emotions only Zoe can raise from the dead of my soul crash into my frozen body when my mind finally catches up. I break out in a sweat. My stomach drops. My pulse throbs in my temples. All the while, I wrestle with the meaning.
“What did you say?” I ask in a voice cold enough to match the frost on the lawn. I heard my guard, loud and clear, but an unfamiliar part of me wants him to deny it. Usually, I don’t shy away from the truth. I’m an expert at embracing all its ugly parts. The truth is a weapon in my quarter, a tool I use for designing psychological manipulation—mind games.
Those very games I engineered to trap Zoe turn on me as the guard repeats, “She’s gone,” sounding uncertain now.
“What the fuck do you mean Zoe is gone?”
He swallows audibly. “She was crying. She excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she didn’t come out after several minutes, I went to check.”
“How many fucking minutes?” I ask, my vision going hazy around the edges.
“Ten. Fifteen. I have a sister, sir.” He starts to stammer. “I know how it is when a woman cries.”
When a woman cries. I hurt Zoe. I know it. I hated every fucking second of it, but what choice did I have? It’ll take time, but, like with all wounds, it’ll eventually heal. We’ll go back to the way we used to be, back to that peaceful, happy state we achieved in Corsica. Until the day Zoe walked in on that first formal meeting between me and Izabella, my future wife.
Doesn’t Zoe know she’ll always come first? Didn’t I tell her my marriage changed nothing? Well, except for not being seen with Zoe in public and the fact that my fiancée and I are supposed to produce an heir after our marriage. Those things are duties, though, unpleasantries to ensure the survival of our empire. Without the alliance, our business won’t develop or thrive. Our families won’t be safe. Peace with the Italians will go down the drain. New wars will break out. Men will die. Without this marriage, I can’t offer Zoe protection. I won’t be able to take care of her or ensure her safety. Why the fuck can’t she see that?
“Sir?” my man asks, fear bleeding into his voice.
That fear is nothing compared to the terror ripping through me as the truth finally settles and self-control runs back into my bones with life, allowing me to be the boss who acts fast and efficiently. Zoe is out there. Alone. An easy target. A delicate flower. No resources. No passport and not much money. No fucking weapon to protect herself. She doesn’t know my country. She doesn’t know my enemies or allies.
I check my watch. It’s quarter to nine in the morning. Caterers are scurrying through the house, carrying trays of food to the dining room for a champagne breakfast. My mother invited the Zanettis so the families can get acquainted before tonight’s engagement party. Servers are polishing the glasses before setting them on the table. I take it all in with detached attention as a wave of fury rises inside me.
Zoe is mine. She made a terrible mistake, one for which she needs to pay, but since I’m the cause of her irrational actions, I’ll carry the blame. I understand why she did what she did. I made it my business to get to know her. Marrying Izabella isn’t cheating. It’s business. Of course Zoe won’t see it that way. She’s a good person. Her heart is pure. She doesn’t want to be a cheater. She told me so herself. Most of all, she’s a woman in love. A woman scorned. That’s why she ran.
“How long exactly since you lost her?” I ask as a chill of violence runs down my spine. The violence is familiar. I know how to control it, but I can’t cope with the sickening fear. This fear, it controls me. It won’t let me detach myself from my feelings and act rationally. I fucking hate Zoe for it as much as I’ve ever adored her.
“Twenty minutes, sir. I ran down to the parking. Her car is gone.”
I’m already tracking her number with the geolocation app. “Her phone?”
“She left it in a trashcan in the toilets. I monitored her location. That’s why I thought she was still in there. I kept on checking her location, sir. I swear—”
“Stop making fucking excuses. Call our connections. Put word out that we’re looking for her. Give them her car model and license plate number.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nobody fucking touches her. Anyone who lays a finger on her is dead.” I cut the call.
Fuck.
Stabbing my fingers into my hair, I stare at the circus unfolding around me while I try to think like Zoe. What would she do? Where would she go?
My mother enters the lounge dressed in her finest. Holding out her hands, she says with a glowing face, “There he is.”
The Zanetti clan trickles in behind her—Paolo, Leonardo, Izabella, and her mother, Noemi. I barely spare them a glance.
My hands are shaking with the urge to commit murder. I’ve lost something precious, and I can’t live without it.
I want her back.
Now.
Turning on my heel, I leave the room without offering anyone a greeting. In a far-off corner of my mind, I register Izabella’s fallen expression. The manners my mother has drilled into me dictate that I stop and offer an explanation, at the very least, an apology. It would be only that. Manners. I’m too apathetic toward my future fiancée to care how she feels. All I can think about is that Zoe is on the loose in a dangerous city where at least a hundred or more dangerous criminals would love to capture and torture her to get to me. Kill her.
Fuck!
I slam the door open with a palm and rush through the foyer.
“Maxime!” My mother’s voice and clacking heels chase after me. She finally catches up with me at the entrance. “Where are you going?” she cries, grabbing my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Not now.” I shake her off. “Zoe ran.”
Her body jerks. Her face goes white. “What did you say to me?”
“I said, Zoe ran.”
“This is your engagement weekend, Maxime.”
“I don’t give a damn!”
“Oh, God.” My mother places a hand over her heart. “This isn’t happening.”
I follow her gaze. Izabella and Leonardo are standing just inside the door. Izabella’s face is drawn. Leonardo looks furious.
How similar they look, my mother and Izabella. So groomed. So composed. So perfect. Like cut flowers cultivated for a vase. Pretty to look at, but their petals have no smell. They’ve been brought up to accept their fate. Not like Zoe. She’s a wildflower, a rose that smells sweet like a rose should. She’s authentic.
Leonardo must’ve told his family what Zoe means to me, yet Izabella hasn’t run. She’ll never run because of another woman. She’ll turn a blind eye and the other cheek, over and over, just like my mother does, no matter how many times my father comes home smelling of whores and infidelity.
Then it strikes me. That’s what makes Zoe different from the women facing me. She believes in love. She believes in something beautiful. Not convenience or money or duty or a business deal. She believes in the real thing, the once-in-a-lifetime kind of love you find with a soul mate. That’s how she survived, how she managed to stay afloat in family violence and poverty. That’s how she survived me.
Fuck me.
That’s her secret, the knowledge I was chasing so hard, the hope I wanted to steal.
The answer is love.
I’m incapable of love, but I want hers. I want it more than anything. If I don’t find her, there’s no hope for me. If I don’t get her back, my happiest moments will be confined to the stolen years we spent together.
I don’t fucking think so.
Trying to hold me back by grabbing a handful of my jacket in her fist, my mother says, “Maxime, if you walk out of here now, I’ll never forgive you.”
I couldn’t give a damn.
Jerking free, I make my way down the porch steps with long strides.
“Your father will disown you,” my mother calls behind me. “Is that what you want?” When I don’t stop, she goes for the ultimate insult. “You’re behaving shamefully, like a lovesick puppy, not the respectable head of your father’s business.”
Her words still me. I pause with my hand on the door handle of the car.
I guess she’s right. In a way, this is my own kind of loving.
Just not the selfless kind.
I’m going after Zoe with everything I’ve got.
Diamonds are Forever: A Diamond Magnate Novel (Diamonds are Forever Trilogy Book 3) Page 1