He'd given the main stone to Nora Brennan, got down on his knees to pamper her, then tossed me the leftover chips like charity.
My chest seized before I could stop it.
I took out the earrings and dropped them into the trash.
James's smile froze. His brows drew together as he snapped at me：
“That was your birthday present! You're just going to throw it away?”
I pulled my gaze away from Nora's hand and said flatly：
“I don't want someone else's leftovers.”
There was no panic on his face at being caught in a lie. He just shot Nora a look of mild annoyance：
“What's between you and me, don't go telling outsiders.”
Right. I was the outsider.
Nora didn't miss the bleakness in my eyes. She slipped the pink diamond off her finger and pressed it toward me on purpose.
“Madge, I'm so sorry!”
I didn't take it. The ring hit the floor.
Nora burst into tears on cue, the picture of wounded innocence：
“James, what do I do? She won't forgive me……”
Then, as if a thought had just struck her, she rummaged through her purse and pulled out a black card：
“James gave me this unlimited black card as a reward for getting pregnant. You want diamonds? Go ahead and swipe it, buy as many as you like!”
She stood there with the ease of a woman who already owned this house, graciously offering me her apology.
My hand slid into my bag on its own and closed around my supplementary card, fingers white-knuckled.
James had given it to me after I lost three babies and his tests came back showing the problem was his. Compensation.
Five thousand dollars a month. That was the limit.
And Nora, barely pregnant, already had an unlimited black card.
So his love for me had always come with a price tag.
I pulled my hand out of my bag.
I wanted to give the card back to James. It had never really been mine.
But he slapped my half-open hand away, his face cold.
“Madge!”
“Haven't I given you enough nice things? How can you have the nerve to fight Nora for hers?”
The glass behind him caught my reflection.
The woman in it wore nothing on her ears, her neck, her wrists, her fingers. Bare.
Because every piece of jewelry he'd ever given me had been sold the year before to fund his company's expansion.
He'd held me tight back then, swearing he'd repay me ten times over, a hundred times over, once the money rolled in.
The ring, he'd said, would be at least a one-carat pink diamond.
He landed the deal. And the first pink diamond he bought went to his childhood sweetheart.
He bent down and picked the ring up off the floor.
Carefully wiped it clean with a wet cloth, then placed it back on Nora's finger with a tenderness that bordered on reverence.
More tenderness than the day he'd proposed to me.
“Nora, what I give you stays yours. Don't ever give it to someone else.”
He turned to me, his eyes cold, the warning in them unmistakable.
I raised my hand and flung the supplementary card into James's face.
He went still for a second. Then it registered that I'd been reaching for the card in my bag, not for Nora's black card, and his expression turned awkward：
“I… I didn't know you were……”
Only in that moment did a flicker of guilt cross his face.
He handed the card back to me and changed the limit on his phone right in front of me.
From five thousand to ten.
“If that's not enough, come ask me for more.”
A cold laugh slipped out of me before I could help it.
His guilt had never been worth much.
James seemed to realize that himself. He lifted his phone to raise the limit again, but Nora looped her arm through his and cut in with a pout：
“James, I don't want the black card.”
“Having this baby for you two is just me repaying a debt. I don't want to make Madge unhappy.”
The words visibly moved James. His eyes went red：
“A gift I've given stays given. I'm not taking it back.”
Only then did Nora reluctantly accept the card.
“James, let me go tidy up the couch. If the staff see it later, they'll tease me again and make me buy everyone boba!”
My heart, already numb, clenched without warning.
