Chapter 1
On our fifteenth wedding anniversary, Daniel put my mother’s gold watch on a list of things we could sell to save his company.
The list lay across my dinner plate beside the candles I had just lit. The last line read:
Women’s gold watch — estimated value: $6,000.
I stared at it, still holding the bottle of wine.
“You had my watch appraised?”
Daniel sat across from me with his jacket draped over the back of his chair and his tie loosened.
He hadn’t touched the roast I’d made. He hadn’t even looked at the anniversary card beside his plate.
“I sent a picture to a jeweler I know.” He pushed a red folder toward me. “Nora, the company won’t make it through the month.”
The folder bumped my wineglass, spilling red drops across the white tablecloth.
Inside were overdue invoices, project reports, and a payroll sheet. But the document on top had nothing to do with his company.
It was an appraisal for the lake house my mother had left me.
I turned the page, then looked back at the first one.
“Why did you have the lake house appraised?”
“Because there’s no mortgage on it. We can use it as collateral and borrow enough to keep the company running. Selling the watch would cover next month’s insurance.”
He kept saying we.
But the folder contained nothing about his retirement account, the vintage car in our garage, or the land his father had left him.
I set down the wine. “Which client didn’t pay?”
“The Bradley account fell through.”
“How much do they owe?”
Daniel looked up. “Do we have to do this right now?”
“If you want me to risk my mother’s house, I need to know how big the shortfall is.”
His fingers tapped twice against the table.
“I spent five hours talking to creditors today. I don’t need to come home and be interrogated.”
“I’m not interrogating you.”
“I tell you we could lose everything, and the first thing you ask for is the numbers.”
The candles had begun to burn unevenly, wax running onto the linen placemats I had saved for tonight.
Two hours earlier, Daniel had texted me to open the bottle of wine we had been keeping for ten years. I had thought he remembered our anniversary.
Now the bottle sat between us like evidence of something I had misunderstood.
“How long have you known?” I asked.
“A few weeks.”
“A few weeks?”
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“But you had time to get my house appraised.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m trying to save our home.”
I looked at the watch on my wrist.
I had worn it for twenty-one years. The day before my mother died, she had taken it off and fastened it around my wrist. It had been too loose on her by then.
Daniel knew that story.
The night after her funeral, he had held my hand and promised that no matter how bad things got, I would never have to sell it.
His phone lit up on the table.
He reached for it, but not fast enough.
I saw the name first.
Celeste.
She was an interior design consultant Daniel had hired the previous year. He said she helped attract wealthier clients. He also claimed she was too expensive to use unless the company needed her.
Her message contained only four words.
Did she choose you?
Daniel turned the phone facedown.
“Why does Celeste know what we’re discussing tonight?”
“She’s helping me handle the crisis.”
“Does she know about my watch?”
“She knows we need money.”
“Then why is she asking whether I chose you?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead. “She’s worried about me. Lately, she’s the only person who’s bothered to ask how I’m doing.”
The words landed harder than anything in the folder.
“I’m your wife.”
“Then stop making me carry this alone.”
“You hid it from me for weeks. You had my house appraised and put my watch on a repayment list. Now you’re blaming me for leaving you alone?”
His chair scraped against the floor as he stood.
“I knew this would happen. The second things get difficult, you protect what belongs to you.”
“That watch belonged to my mother.”
“I know.” His gaze dropped to my wrist. “That’s why giving it up would mean something.”
I didn’t move.
Daniel came around the table and lowered his voice.
“If losing a watch scares you more than losing me, then at least I’ll know what fifteen years of marriage was worth.”
I searched his face for hesitation.
There was none.
I unfastened the watch.
The metal left a pale red mark around my wrist. I placed it on top of the repayment list, covering the appraisal for the lake house.
Daniel picked it up immediately.
As if he had been waiting for it all night.