All his tenderness, all his concern, belonged to another woman.
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and dabbed at the blood on my elbow. That bone-deep sting was exactly the same as it had been years ago.
The man standing before me was no longer the man I once knew.
"Katherine, you brought this on yourself!"
Allan cradled Delilah's face, stroking it gently, the fury in his eyes unmistakable.
"You insist on making a scene. What good does that do you?"
I picked myself up off the floor. I was about to speak when my gaze drifted upward and caught on something at Delilah's neckline: a jade pendant, peeking out from beneath her collar.
My grandmother's jade pendant.
"Delilah James, where did you get that pendant? It's mine!"
I lunged forward and seized her collar, trying to wrench it free.
Delilah clutched at her neck, twisting away from me. "Yours? Allan gave this to me. He said the jade was the perfect complement to my fair skin."
Allan.
Always Allan.
"Allan Delgado, you knew this was the only thing my grandmother left me. You knew what she meant to me. I kept that pendant locked away like it was sacred. What gave you the right to hand it over to her?"
Allan pulled Delilah into his arms. "Katherine, it's a pendant. Delilah liked it. Is that really worth losing your mind over? You've gone completely insane."
My chest heaved with rage.
Dawn and Allan formed a wall around Delilah. I couldn't get anywhere near the pendant. Instead, Dawn grabbed a fistful of my hair and shoved me backward.
I whipped around and slapped her across the face. "This is between the three of us. Who the hell are you?"
Dawn staggered, stunned. She moved to come at me again, but the other employees stepped in, holding her back.
"Dawn, just stay out of it. Something about this doesn't add up."
"I was thinking the same thing. This Miss Gilbert, the way she carries herself, the way she talks, she doesn't seem like the other woman. If anything, it's the boss's wife... no, wait, this Miss James..."
"Forget it. Just watch."
The whispers rippled through the room. Delilah's composure cracked, color flooding her cheeks. Afraid the truth was about to spill, she ripped the pendant from her neck in one vicious motion.
"Miss Gilbert, I don't know if what you're saying is true or not, but you obviously care about this little trinket. So here, it's yours!"
She raised her arm and hurled it across the room.
"No!"
My pupils contracted. I threw myself forward on pure instinct, desperate to catch it, but she'd flung it too high. All I could do was watch as it struck the floor and shattered into pieces.
I dropped to my knees. With trembling hands, I gathered the broken fragments, pressing them together on my palm, trying to piece them back into shape. One corner was missing.
I forgot about dignity. I forgot about everything. My hands swept across the cold floor, searching.
My grandmother had died saving me. I couldn't lose the only piece of her I had left.
Grandma.
"Miss Gilbert, is this what you're looking for?"
A man in black-rimmed glasses crouched down and held out a small shard of jade.
I thanked him quickly, my voice raw.
I recognized him. When I'd been reviewing resumes, I was the one who had fast-tracked his hire.
"Oh, how clumsy of me! I threw it a little too hard." Delilah's voice dripped with mock sympathy. "But honestly, maybe it's for the best. You said it belonged to a dead woman. That's creepy, if you think about it. She's dead and gone. Who actually treasures something that morbid? It's pathetic."
Her laughter cut through the air like broken glass.
Then Allan's impatient voice again: "Katherine, look at yourself right now. It was a worthless jade pendant. Delilah liked it, so I gave it to her. What's the big deal? Now it's broken and you have no one to blame but yourself, crawling around crying on the floor. I told you today is Delilah's birthday. Whatever issues you have, they can wait. But no, you had to come here and ruin everything."
