“I didn’t know Daniel had a tracking app,” she said.
“That is what you came to discuss?”
“No.”
“Then begin with something true.”
Her face tightened.
“The necklace was not for me.”
I glanced at the box.
Vanessa opened it. Inside lay a delicate gold chain with a small diamond pendant shaped like a star.
Daniel had bought me a similar pendant after Noah was born. I lost it during a family trip years earlier.
“This belonged to your mother,” Vanessa said.
I stopped breathing.
“My mother never owned that.”
“Yes, she did.”
Vanessa removed the pendant and turned it over. Tiny initials were engraved on the back.
E.M.
Eleanor Mercer.
My mother-in-law.
Daniel’s mother had died when he was nineteen. He rarely spoke about her, except to say she had been gentle and unhappy.
“Bellamy Jewelers restored it,” Vanessa explained. “Daniel asked me to collect it with him because the jeweler wanted confirmation from someone connected to the original insurance claim.”
