The Bracelet

Elise's POV

"No, cease all operations. It seems I will be back sooner than we had planned," I spoke into the phone, biting down hard on my lip so my voice wouldn't crack.

The moment I hung up I released a shaky breath and stared at the gift box sitting in my palm.

My eyes watered. I let out a scoff instead of crying.

"Seven years," I muttered. "Seven years and this is what I get."

I was standing in our bedroom holding a small velvet box I had found tucked inside Adrian's jacket while taking it to the dry cleaner. Inside was a diamond bracelet — customized, delicate, the kind of thing I had hinted at wanting for our third anniversary and he had called me vain for asking.

Ten thousand dollars minimum. I knew because I had priced the same one two years ago and put it back.

The engraving on the inside of the bracelet made my chest cave in.

My love, forever and always. From Adrian to Jade.

The bedroom door opened and Adrian walked in still adjusting his cufflinks, frowning when he saw me standing there instead of coming back with his jacket.

"What's taking so long?" he asked.

I held the box out to him without a word.

His face did something complicated for just a second before he smoothed it over. He took the box and sighed like I was the inconvenience.

"Jade's boyfriend broke up with her last week. She's been struggling to focus at work so I got her something small to lift her spirits. It's nothing."

I stared at him.

"Something small," I repeated.

"It's a gift, Elise. I'm her employer."

"With your wedding vow engraved on it."

He opened his mouth. Closed it. Then — "I asked them to engrave her ex's name but the jeweller made a mistake and put mine since I was the one paying. I didn't notice until it was done."

I laughed. Not because it was funny. Because the audacity of it — standing in our bedroom, looking me dead in the eyes, and saying that — was almost impressive.

"Seven years, Adrian," I said. "You have never once bought me anything. You called me vain for wanting a bracelet. You said material things were beneath a woman of character." I looked at the box in his hand. "And yet."

"Here we go," he muttered, already turning away.

"Here we go?" I asked.

"You're always doing this. Finding something to be dramatic about." He dropped the box on the dresser and picked up his watch. "I'm late."

He left.

I stood in the bedroom for a long moment. Then I finished getting dressed for the burial we were supposed to attend together — the funeral of one of his colleagues, a man whose wife I had grown quietly close to over the years. I wanted to be there for her.

I came downstairs to find the limousine already gone.

He had taken it without me.

I grabbed his car keys off the hook by the door and took his black sedan. I had barely opened the glove compartment to find the aux cord when a box tumbled out and landed on the passenger floor.

I frowned and picked it up.

The scent hit me before I even opened it — vanilla and cinnamon, warm and familiar in a way that turned my stomach. It was the same perfume that clung to Adrian's shirts on the nights he came home late. When I asked he always said he met a lot of people, that scents transferred easily, that I was being paranoid.

Inside the box was red lingerie — expensive, barely there — and a folded note tucked beneath it.

I unfolded it.

To remind you of our explosive night yesterday. Wear it for me again soon. — J

Yesterday. Adrian had not come home until four in the morning yesterday. He said he had worked late with Jade and dropped her off because there were no cabs. He had kissed my forehead when he thought I was asleep and I had lain there in the dark saying nothing.

Two years I had been saying nothing.

I set the note down carefully on the passenger seat.

Then I started the car and drove to his office.

***

The reception floor was busy when I walked in but I wasn't looking for Adrian yet. I was looking for Jade.

She wasn't at her desk.

I took the elevator to the executive floor and pushed open the door to Adrian's office.

Jade was inside — sitting in Adrian's chair, phone raised, bracelet on her wrist, doing a live video with the giddy energy of someone who had never considered consequences.

"—and see what my rich boyfriend got for me," she was saying, tilting the bracelet toward the camera.

I stepped fully into the room.

"Your rich boyfriend," I said.