Chapter 3
“You wrote that we belonged together.”
“It was a joke.”
“It wasn’t funny.”
“I know.”
Alexander’s voice lowered. “Did you know Olivia was wearing the necklace?”
Madison stared at him.
That was answer enough.
“You knew.”
“I knew she had it. I didn’t know you had bought it for Emily.”
“You were there when I bought it.”
“I thought you changed your mind.”
“Why would you think that?”
Madison’s eyes moved toward the window. “Because Olivia said you gave it to her.”
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Alexander remembered the necklace.
He had purchased it in March, nearly six months earlier, after a difficult business trip. Emily had mentioned once that her grandmother used to wear a small diamond pendant, and he had wanted to surprise her with something similar.
But the necklace had remained in his car.
He had forgotten it there while rushing from one meeting to another. Olivia had found it during a dinner they attended with several investors. She had asked whether it was meant for her.
Alexander had said no.
At least, he thought he had.
He remembered Olivia laughing softly and saying, “Then you should give it to whoever you bought it for.”
He had intended to bring it home.
Then work had become busy. Grace had become ill with a fever for several days. Emily had been traveling between the office and the pediatrician. The necklace had stayed in the locked compartment of his car.
Until Olivia wore it to the anniversary dinner.
Alexander had assumed she had taken it as a joke.
He had not asked why she felt comfortable doing so.
Now he looked at Madison. “Why did you let her wear it?”
“I didn’t let her. She said you had given it to her.”
“And you believed her?”
Madison’s expression crumpled. “She told me you were going to leave Emily.”
The room seemed to contract.
“Who told you that?”
“Olivia.”
“When?”
“Before the party.”
Alexander gave a short, humorless laugh. “And you believed her because?”
“Because you were always with her.”
He looked away.
There it was.
A truth he had avoided because it was easier to dismiss other people’s assumptions than examine his own behavior.
Olivia had attended his private dinners. She had traveled with his business associates. She had known the details of his schedule better than Emily did.
None of it had seemed wrong to him because he had never considered what it looked like from the outside.