He Financed Two Lives, the Hidden One Cost His Life

Two days before Valentine's Day, I found the tag of a pendant in my husband's coat.

For one bright, stupid second, I thought it was mine.

Then he kept making excuses — the office, the drawer, a box that was never in it. No pendant ever reached me.

And I stopped being stupid.

He hadn't forgotten. He hadn't lost it. He had simply bought it for someone who wasn't me.

Most women would have cried. Instead, I held out my bare neck and thanked him for the surprise.

I let him stumble. I let him run back to the office and run back home, sweating through his own story, until he put the real thing into my hands.

He wanted two lives. I kept the receipt.

Two days before Valentine's Day, the tag said the pendant held 1.52 carats.

I set it on the coffee table in front of Adrian.

For one second, his face didn't know what to do. His eyes flicked from the tag to me, then toward the bedroom, as if an answer might be hiding in there.

I smiled before he could speak.

"I found it. You can stop pretending now."

I reached up and unclasped the thin chain I always wore.

"Come on. Give it to me. I want you to put it on."

Adrian recovered quickly. That had probably served him well in the affair too.

He patted his pockets, frowned. "Didn't I already give it to you?"

"Would I be asking if you had?"

"Then I must still be at the office." He gave a small, embarrassed laugh. "I was hiding it there so you wouldn't find it before Valentine's Day. It should be in my desk. I'll bring it home tomorrow."

I couldn't stand the thought of my pendant around another woman's neck for one more night.

"Go get it now."

His smile froze.

I leaned closer, as eager as a wife who had just discovered her husband's romantic secret. "The surprise is already ruined. Don't make me wait on top of it."

Adrian changed his shoes without another argument.

I didn't follow him. He needed privacy to ask his lover for my gift back.

He returned sooner than I expected and handed me a blue jewelry box.

His shoulders were dry. There were no strands of unfamiliar hair on his coat. Apparently, whatever story he had told her had worked.

Inside was a single diamond pendant on a silver chain.

I didn't put it on. I carried it to the kitchen and placed it on the jeweler's carat scale I had cleaned and set out in advance.

The display settled.

1.30 carats.

Adrian opened his mouth.

I pointed at the number. "Why doesn't it match the tag?"

His face went red, then pale, then red again.

At last he sighed. "Nora, I was too embarrassed to tell you. I couldn't find the original pendant at work, so I bought another one on the way home."

I'd memorized that tag the day the box came home. Wives do that.

I clasped the smaller stone at my throat. It sat perfectly against my collarbone.

"Then we should call the police."

"What?"

"Something valuable disappeared from your office. There should be cameras. It won't be hard to find out who took it."

I reached for my phone.

Adrian caught my wrist. "Wait. There's no need to make this a big deal. I may have put it somewhere else. I'll go back and search properly."

"Good idea." I paused. "While you're there, ask if anyone saw a 1.52-carat pendant."

His fingers tightened, then released me.

This time he was gone much longer.

I cleaned every side of the scale while I waited. I wanted no room for argument when my pendant came home.

Near midnight, the lock finally turned.

Adrian walked in holding another jewelry box. His voice was calm, but one shoulder of his coat was damp.

"You were right," he managed. "I searched everywhere and found it behind a stack of files."

He put the pendant on the scale before I could ask.

The numbers blinked once, then stopped.

1.52.

"See? Exactly right."

I looked at the wet mark on his shoulder. Someone had cried hard against him. Losing a Valentine's gift after receiving it must have been painful.

The pendant was back with its rightful owner, so there was nothing left to fight about.

I fastened the second pendant beside the first and turned to the mirror, the two stones catching the light together.

"You know—" I tilted my head. "—they look even better together."

Then I smiled at my husband.

"Thank you for both of my gifts."