Chapter 2

Anna's new mother-in-law sat beside her in a navy silk dress, a pearl brooch pinned at the collar. She reached over and touched the bracelet on Anna's wrist, her eyes lighting up.

"Oh my, look at the clarity on this. Anyone can tell it's old, the color's soaked right into the jade. Your family really dotes on Anna, giving her something this precious as a dowry piece."

Pleased, Anna lifted her hand and held the bracelet up under the light. The bright green inside the jade looked like a pool of moving water, and where the crystal chandelier shone through the stone, it threw a pale-green ring of light onto the floor.

She let out a coy little laugh. "My mom says it's a family heirloom. It'll go to my daughter one day. That makes me the third generation to wear it, actually."

The compliments came in waves. One aunt nudged another and said, See how lucky Anna is. The other nodded. Of course. Anna's always had good fortune, and now she's married into a decent family too.

I picked up the red wine in front of me and drained it in one swallow. The alcohol burned all the way down and churned in my stomach like a dull knife.

Last week I'd taken it off before my shower and set it on the nightstand. Three years of marriage, and every night I set the bracelet in the exact same spot, the top-left corner of the nightstand, on top of an embroidered handkerchief my mother had given me. The next morning the handkerchief was still there. The bracelet was gone. I tore the whole apartment apart. Wardrobe drawers, the hidden compartment in the dressing table, the storage bin under the bed, the kitchen cabinets, under the bathroom sink. I asked everyone. No one had seen it.

My mother-in-law searched right alongside me. She crouched down, pulled open the bottom drawer of the TV stand, dug all the way to the back, and fished out a few pieces of candy that had been there who knows how many years, peeled one, and popped it in her mouth. Then she frowned and scolded me for being careless, said I shouldn't leave something so valuable lying around.

I cried for a whole night. She sat on the edge of my bed, patting my back over and over with her plump hand, telling me lost is lost, and that she'd save up and buy me a better one someday. She even poured me a cup of warm water with two lumps of rock sugar in it and coaxed me to drink it like I was a child.

I grabbed her hand and cried, thinking that stingy as she usually was, she still cared about me deep down.

The bracelet was on Anna's wrist. Under the lights it was almost too bright to look at.

I turned my head toward Jesse Fox, sitting next to me. He was cheerfully toasting the relatives, whiskey glasses clinking away. When he saw me watching him, he leaned in, breath reeking of liquor, and said under his voice, "Look how gorgeous my sister is today. That bracelet really suits her. Mom's so generous."

I stared into his eyes. He even smiled, thinking I was sharing in his happiness. He clapped me on the shoulder and turned back to play drinking games with his uncle.

I didn't say anything. I picked up another glass of red wine and drank it down.