Chapter 15 - Lily Gets the Ring Back
Six years after the ballroom, Lily was thirteen.
Claire was healthy.
Sophie was twenty-four and finishing graduate school.
At a family dinner, Claire brought out the blue sapphire ring.
Daniel groaned.
“No.”
Claire laughed.
“I’m not giving it to Lily.”
Lily looked offended.
“Why not?”
“Because you lose your phone twice a week.”
“Once.”
“Twice.”
Claire gave the ring to Sophie.
This time Sophie accepted it.
Then she surprised everyone.
She slipped it onto a chain instead of her finger.
“I don’t want it to mean inheritance.”
“What should it mean?” Daniel asked.
Sophie looked at Lily.
“That a seven-year-old was smarter than every adult in the ballroom.”
Lily smiled proudly.
“Correct.”
Vanessa was not at that dinner.
Her relationship with the family had improved, but slowly.
She no longer assumed invitations.
She waited to receive them.
That mattered.
Later Sophie let Lily wear the necklace for one photograph.
Daniel stood beside them.
May you like
The sapphire caught the light.
For once, nobody was trying to hide it.
