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My father had been one of the founding elders of Sanchez Group.
It was fair to say he'd built the company at old Mr. Sanchez's side, and his standing carried real weight.
Back when Andrew was fighting the other illegitimate sons for the position of heir, the old Mrs. Sanchez brought him to our door with a marriage proposal — but the real aim was to win my father over.
At first my father refused.
He said I was quiet and simple by nature, not suited to the tangle of a wealthy family.
It was Andrew who knelt on the floor and swore that, whether or not he succeeded, he would never betray me.
He and I had grown up together, more or less.
When he saw me flush and lower my head, my father understood everything, and he threw all his weight behind putting Andrew in the president's chair.
Before the wedding, he called me into his study and looked at me with a tenderness that had no bottom to it.
"Dora, you're still young. You don't understand how money and power can change a person's heart."
"If the day comes when you want to leave him, go to the old Mrs. Sanchez. I'm getting old, sweetheart. I can't shield you for long. All I ask is that before I die, I can leave my treasure a way out."
At the time I naively thought my father was worrying over nothing.
I never imagined his words would come true to the letter.
Andrew knew none of this.
Thankfully, the old Mrs. Sanchez still honored the debt she owed my father, and she promised to place the divorce papers in my hands seven days later.
That day, Andrew would be throwing a banquet for Yolanda and her son, announcing that Sanchez Group had an heir at last.
My leaving wouldn't draw a single glance.
The baby had died in the womb; by rights he would have been buried quietly and forgotten.
Maybe out of guilt, the old Mrs. Sanchez broke with custom and held a small funeral for my child, laying him to rest in the Sanchez family plot.
By tradition, the body was to lie in the funeral home for three days.
Andrew didn't show his face once.
He was too busy buying Yolanda jewelry and houses, hiring the best nutritionist money could find, living grander than me, his own wife.
Too busy naming their son himself — Grant, a name that meant a treasure held dear by his parents.
Yet when his assistant asked what should be carved on my child's headstone, he frowned in irritation.
"It was a useless burden to begin with, and now it's troubling my elders and wasting their time. No sense at all."
"Just call it 'Loathe.'"
As if he were afraid the world might not know how thoroughly its father despised it.
The old Mrs. Sanchez overheard, scolded him for behaving so shamefully, and took it upon herself to change the child's name to 'Remember.'
A small attempt to make things right by me.
But she wasn't the one who owed me anything.
That night Yolanda came to the funeral home, glowing with satisfaction.
"You lost the baby, ma'am, and you're grieving. I really didn't want to intrude."
"But Mr. Sanchez is throwing a banquet for us in a few days, and I'm still short a few pink diamonds to go with my evening gown."
I looked at my son's memorial tablet and spoke quietly.
"Then you should go to a jeweler, not come to me."
Yolanda's smile deepened.
"Listen to you, ma'am. Fine pink diamonds aren't exactly cabbages at the market. Never mind a jewelry store — you might not even find them at an ordinary auction."
"Mr. Sanchez said you already had some, and told me to come ask you for them. You wouldn't say no, would you, ma'am?"
I went still for a moment, then dropped my eyes to the bracelet on my wrist.
Each pink diamond had been cut into the shape of a cherry blossom, glinting under the cold light.
Andrew had given it to me when we got engaged.
Back then a video was going around online, called wear the blossom in this life, be beautiful in the next.
I'd loved soft pink cherry blossoms since I was a child, so I told him, if you can make me a bracelet out of cherry blossoms, I'll marry you.
It was really just a joke, since cherry-blossom season was long over by then.
But the very next day Andrew flew abroad to an auction and spent almost everything he had at the time to win twelve rare pink diamonds, then cut them into cherry blossoms with his own hands and made them into a bracelet.
When he gave it to me, his smile was foolish with happiness.
"Dora, I'm not marrying you to become the heir. I've been in love with you for twelve years. I really do love you."
"Flowers always wither, but my love for you is like these cherry-blossom diamonds. It will never fade, never fall."
Now he wanted to hand that love to someone else.
My voice stayed even.
"He bought it. He can give it to whoever he likes."
Before I could take it off myself, Yolanda flicked a glance at the bodyguards behind her.
They seized my wrist and yanked the bracelet clean off.
The chain had been made strong; when it snapped, it cut a line of blood into the bone of my wrist.
Yolanda covered her mouth with feigned apology.
"Oh dear, ma'am, these men are the new ones Mr. Sanchez sent to protect me. They don't know their own strength. You mustn't be upset now."
The pink diamonds were pried out one by one, and the broken chain was dropped at my feet.
I stared down at it.
Seeing that, Yolanda gave a smile heavy with meaning.
"This morning I asked Mr. Sanchez whether he liked cherry blossoms better or roses. Care to guess what he said, ma'am? He said, bringing up something past its prime only brings bad luck."
"So you see, ma'am, you're just like this cherry-blossom bracelet. No matter how lifelike it looks on the outside, it can't change the fact that it's past its prime."
One of the bodyguards took a call: Andrew knew Yolanda loved roses.
He had already bought her an estate abroad that grew nothing but Bulgarian roses.
It came with greenhouses, so that the freshest roses could be flown to Yolanda year-round, in every season — anything, as long as it made her happy.
So it turned out you only needed a comparison to see whether a man truly cared for you or was only going through the motions.
Yes, the pink diamonds were beautiful. So beautiful they made me forget.
From the very start, they had been fake.
