him. It was precious because the diamond had belonged to my grandmother. She had worn it through forty-two years of marriage, two cancer scares, and one house fire that took everything except the jewelry box she carried out under her coat.
When Damon proposed, I had let him reset the stone because he said a man should design the ring his fiancée wore. I had trusted him with the last bright thing my grandmother left me.
He saw the pain cross my face and smiled.
“There she is,” he murmured. “Now you’re listening.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“Somewhere safe.”
“Damon.”
“Maybe I’ll remember when you stop acting insane.”
The restaurant door opened behind him.
Elise stepped into the rain holding a small velvet box in both hands.
“Ms. Bennett?” she called.
Damon went still.
I looked at the box.
Then at him.
Elise came closer, her face pale but determined. “I found this under the chair across from yours.”
The chair across from mine.
The woman in red’s chair.
Damon whispered, “Elise, don’t.”
The use of her name made my stomach twist. He had not asked her name tonight. He had known it already.
I took the box from her hand and opened it.
My grandmother’s diamond stared up at me in the rainy blue light.
For a second, I could not breathe.
Tucked beneath the ring was a folded piece of paper.
I opened it with stiff fingers.
It was a pawn ticket.
The date printed at the top was from three weeks earlier.
Three weeks.
Before our anniversary dinner. Before his cigar lounge. Before the jokes.
Damon had pawned my grandmother’s diamond and bought it back only because I had unknowingly paid the final studio invoice that morning, freeing up money he had hidden from me.
My voice came out quiet.
“You pawned her ring.”
His face hardened. “I was going to get it back.”
“You gave it to another woman to hide.”
“No. She was holding it because you get emotional.”
Elise looked down. Even she knew how weak that sounded.
The woman in red appeared in the doorway behind him, arms folded. The confidence had left her face. She looked annoyed now, inconvenienced by being connected to a mess that was no longer entertaining.
“He told me it was his backup cash,” she said.
Damon spun. “Shut up.”
She lifted her chin. “Don’t talk to me like that. You said she knew.”
I looked at Damon.
The final thread snapped.
Not dramatically. Not loudly.
It simply separated.
I put the ring box into my purse and turned to Elise.
“Please add the dinner for two to my original deposit,” I said. “Nothing else.”
Elise nodded. “Of course.”
Damon laughed sharply. “You can’t just leave me with the bill.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“I did not leave you with the bill,” I said. “I left you with yourself.”
Then I walked away.
He followed for half a block, shouting my name, then insults, then apologies. They came in that order, as they always had. My phone buzzed until I turned it off.
At home, the apartment felt different before I even opened the door.
It was not bigger. It was not cleaner. Damon’s sneakers still sat crooked by the entrance. His jacket
