“Mandy’s?”
He nodded once.
“Not like this. The ring I gave your mother had diamonds in it. After she died…” His jaw flexed. “I had the stones made into earrings for you. Figured one day you might want something of hers that wasn’t a story told by people who didn’t know how to tell it kindly.”
I couldn’t breathe right.
The diamonds blurred.
“Thank you, Uncle.”
I had never called him that before.
“You’re welcome, niece.”
His voice was rougher now.
“She had a lot of people loving her badly,” he said. “I was one of them.”
No one moved.
Even the ocean seemed quieter beyond the terrace.
Tarak cleared his throat, like emotion offended him and he intended to wrestle it back into submission. “Anyway. I want you to have them.”
I touched the edge of the box.
“They’re beautiful.”
“They’re yours.”
That was what got me.
Not they were hers.
They’re yours.
My eyes burned, but I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek because I was not going to cry again. I had cried enough in this lifetime to fill the pool.
Regan came up behind me and gently took the box from my hands. “Let me.”
I turned slightly, and she slipped the earrings into my ears one at a time. Her fingers were careful, warm against my skin. When she finished, Amber made a small sound like she was about to cry.
“Oh, Destiny,” she whispered. “They’re perfect.”
I lifted my hands to my ears.
The diamonds were tiny and cool beneath my fingertips.
A part of Mandy.
A part of Tarak.
A part of a story that had been ugly and beautiful and impossible all at once.
Before I could figure out what to say, Edge stood.
He had a box too.
