For eighteen years Rowan Ashcroft loved Ethan Carter, giving up his family studio and three years to build Carter Jewelry into a brand. Then, at the charity gala, Ethan tore open his suit and planted the stolen heirloom diamond on him, humiliating him before the cameras. Rowan walks away and enters the Global Crown Jewelry Competition under his own name, winning with a record 99.2 and debuting in Paris. All along, Adrian Sterling, who waited two years for him, offered only resources, patience and no pressure; on a brightly lit street he kneels with a custom platinum ring and asks for the rest of Rowan's life. Behind a barbershop window, Ethan watches him say yes.