Chapter 148

Vera

The gifts were for after the meal, just as we had implicitly understood, an addition to the occasion, not its focus.

Declan put one hand into an inside pocket of his jacket and produced a tiny black box. He placed it on the table between us with no fuss.

“Open it,” he said.

I did.

Inside, lying on ivory silk, was a necklace, a necklace felt, was perhaps not quite the word, as a single stone,