"I have a surprise," he said warmly, and produced a small navy velvet box.
Inside lay a delicate gold necklace.
And that voice echoed in my head: don't wear it.
"Put it on," Julian smiled, stepping toward me. "I want to see how it looks."
There was an eager, hungry glint in his eyes I had never seen before.
"Tomorrow," I said gently. "I just want to shower."
For a fraction of a second, his smile vanished completely.
That night, while he sat glued to his computer in the spare room, I filled a glass with water and lowered the necklace in.
I hid it in the back of a corner cabinet, behind a Dutch oven he never touched.
At six the next morning, I opened the cabinet and pulled out the glass.
The water was no longer clear.
Chapter 2: What the Water Showed
The water had gone cloudy, with a faint greenish film clinging to the surface and a thin residue sliding off the chain where it had soaked.