Amber pointed at him.
“Did you buy those for her?”
The question was so perfectly Amber that I almost laughed.
Even after slapping me, even after discovering the sister she called a shadow had a life she knew nothing about, she still needed the diamonds to belong to somebody else.
“No,” my husband said.
Amber blinked.
He nodded toward the velvet box.
“She bought them herself.”
“With what?”
“My salary,” I said.
“But you’re married to a billionaire.”
“And I still have a job.”
Amber’s face twisted as though those two facts were somehow incompatible.
“You let us think you were just working at Boyd Creative?”
“I am working at Boyd Creative.”
“You know what I mean.”
Unfortunately, I did.
To Amber, my job had only seemed unimpressive because she had assumed it was the biggest thing in my life.
Now she had discovered there were rooms she had never been invited into, choices she had never been consulted on, and a marriage she had never been given the opportunity to measure against herself.
She looked wounded by the existence of information that had not been offered to her.
“You hid this.”
I touched my cheek.
“You just slapped me because I bought earrings.”
“That’s not what happened.”
Tara spoke before I could.
“That is exactly what happened.”
Amber whipped around.
“Stay out of this.”
“I was standing three feet away.”
The older man near the bracelet counter raised his hand slightly.
“So were we.”
His wife nodded.
Amber glanced around.
The room that had once been her audience had become a collection of witnesses.
Bridget shifted uncomfortably.
“Amber, maybe we should just go.”
“Go?” Amber snapped.
“She planned this.”
I stared at her.
“What exactly did I plan?”
“This whole thing.
Showing up here.
Buying diamonds.
Him coming in.
Making me look insane.”
“You came here after me.”
Amber’s mouth opened and closed.
Kayla finally spoke.
“That’s true.”
Amber turned on her.
“Whose side are you on?”
Kayla’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“It’s not about sides.
You hit her.”
For the first time, something close to fear crossed Amber’s face.
Not fear of me.
