Chapter 3
A few days later, I went to the jewelry store where Grant had bought my engagement ring.
The ring had lost some shine lately, so I made an appointment to have it cleaned.
Grant had offered to come with me, but a project meeting was added to his schedule that afternoon. I told him it was fine. It was only the ring.
The sales associate slipped on white gloves and examined it beneath the display light.
"The wear isn't bad,"
she said.
"A cleaning should make a big difference."
She typed Grant's name into the computer.
When the old order appeared, she smiled.
"I remember this one."
"After all these years?"
"Some customers are memorable."
She glanced at the record.
"Your husband took a long time choosing."
I smiled.
That sounded like Grant.
The associate scrolled farther down and added casually,
"The woman who came with him was much more decisive."
My hand stopped against the glass counter.
"Woman?"
She looked up.
"Yes. I always assumed she was your sister or a close friend."
I looked at the ring in her gloved palm.
"Do you remember her name?"
Her smile faded slightly. She checked the screen again.
"There's a note here. Camille."
I said nothing.
The diamond caught the light.
When Grant had first put that ring on my finger, he had told me, I saw it and knew it was yours.
In my mind, he had always been standing in this store alone, looking through the case and thinking of me.
I had never pictured Camille beside him.
That evening, Grant noticed my bare ring finger as soon as he set down his keys.
"Why aren't you wearing it?"
"It's being cleaned."
He nodded and started toward the kitchen.
"The woman at the store told me Camille came with you."
Grant stopped.
His hand stayed on the back of the chair for two seconds before he pulled it out.
"She came with me once."
"You never mentioned it."
"I didn't think it mattered."
The room went quiet.
I rubbed the pale mark around my ring finger.
"You told me you saw it and knew it was mine."
Grant frowned.
"That was true."
"Was she standing next to you?"
He did not answer immediately.
Then he sat down and tapped one finger against the table.
"I was nervous. She'd known me forever. I wanted a second opinion."
I looked at my bare hand.
A memory I had always thought belonged to the two of us now had another person standing inside it.
"So when you were getting ready to propose to me, she was part of that too."
Grant's expression tightened.
"Audrey, don't take the hospital thing and start rewriting everything that happened years ago."
I did not answer right away.
What bothered me was no longer one single detail.
Every time I touched some part of Grant and Camille's past, there seemed to be another door I had not known existed.
I let my hand fall to my lap.
"Was there anything else before the wedding?"
Grant looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
"Anything you and Camille knew that I didn't?"
His jaw tightened.
It was small.
But this time, I did not explain it away.
Grant glanced at my bare ring finger.
Several seconds passed.
Then he said,
"Nothing changes the fact that I married you."
I looked at him.
The sentence sounded certain.
But it had not answered my question.
My fingers curled into my palm.
And for the first time, his answer did not sound like a denial.