“I bought it for Vanessa,” Ethan said gently.
“But how would a ring that you bought for your girlfriend end up with—”
Then suddenly Rachel remembered something he had said way back at the hospital about how he’d lost something at the scene of the accident…and then Gary’s half-hearted and, if she thought about it now, rather low-key proposal when they exchanged gifts…
And just like that, coupled with Daisy’s comment about Ethan’s girlfriend’s ring also being from Tiffany’s, all the pieces finally fell into place.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, turning to Gary, feeling sick. “It wasn’t yours. The ring, the Tiffany’s bag, it didn’t belong to you at all, did it?”
“There’s nothing to say it belonged tohimeither,” Gary began, but she put a hand up to stop him.
“I’m so sorry, Rachel,” Ethan insisted, his face pained. “There was a mix-up when Daisy and I helped him after the accident, but I didn’t discover it until the next day, when Vanessa went to open her gift and she got yours instead.”
She tasted bile in her mouth. “I can’t believe that you proposed to me with a ring that you didn’t buy,” she said to Gary, tears filling her eyes. “One that was meant for someone else. What kind of person would steal—”
“Hold on. I didn’t steal anything.”
“What do you call laying claim to something that is not rightfully yours?” Ethan interjected hotly, and the two men glared at each other.
“What was in mine?” she asked then, her tone robotic. “You said that you discovered the mistake when your girlfriend opened her gift,” she said to Ethan before turning to Gary again, who was staring at his feet. “What was I supposed to get?” she repeated forcefully, knowing deep down that while it was something from Tiffany’s, it certainly wasn’t a diamond ring.
There was a long, tension-filled silence until eventually Gary spoke. “A charm bracelet,” he admitted, putting her out of her misery.
A charm bracelet.
Rachel’s heart plunged to the depths of her stomach. She wanted to die of embarrassment.
Obviously he’d been just as surprised as she was by the engagement ring. Which could only mean one thing—he had never intended to propose in the first place.
And not only that, but they all knew, she realized now, mortified.
Ethan, Gary, Terri, possibly even Justin. They had seen her dancing around like a loon about her so-called fairy-tale engagement, yet none of them had bothered to enlighten her.
And this, possibly more than anything else, hurt the most.
“A charm bracelet,” she repeated stonily, and in a quick flash of insight, she recalled the Tiffany’s transaction on Gary’s credit card, which in retrospect made perfect sense.
Ethan was telling the truth; this was no bad dream, no embarrassing nightmare from which she’d wake up and feel silly.
She looked at Gary with disdain. “You proposed to me with a ring that belonged to someone else?” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “How could you? How could anyone stoop so low?”
He was reluctant to meet her gaze. “What was I supposed to do, Rach? You were over the moon about that ring and the proposal, and I knew if I said something that you would—”
“Of course you should have said something! Instead, you chose to make a complete fool of me by going along with this huge charade!” She wanted to die of mortification, all the plans she’d been making, not only for the wedding but for the rest of their lives.
She’d been such a fool.
“I didn’t know what to do. It caught me by surprise too,” he said quietly, seemingly unable to offer any other explanation.
“And you.” Now she turned her attentions to Ethan. “You knew the whole time, and you lied bald-faced right from the beginning. All this nonsense about being concerned for Gary and researching some book. Christ, you must all think I’m a complete idiot.”
“Rachel, no, of course not,” Ethan replied, looking horrified. “I didn’t want to upset you. None of us did. And to be frank, it wasn’t my place to say anything.” Again he stared accusingly at Gary. “I was just considering your feelings.”
“Why would any of you think that leading me on this…farceis considering my feelings!” she exploded. “What kind of imbecile do you think I am?” Much to her annoyance, she began to sob and saw Ethan move to comfort her. “No,” she cried, stepping back. Tears stained her cheeks. “Don’t touch me. Don’t any of you come near me.”
Then she thought of something else. “Where is the ring now?” she asked, realizing that its sudden disappearance no longer seemed so inexplicable. “Oh,” she said then, answering her own question. But then she remembered little Daisy’s comment earlier about the ring not being the right fit for Ethan’s girlfriend.
“So what happened? Did you have a crisis of conscience or something?” she asked Gary. Yet why did he act so surprised yesterday when she admitted that it had been lost?
