Chapter 6: The Tiara Shatters

The day before I was to leave,

My mother-in-law summoned me and told me to hurry and prepare for Caleb and Lauren’s wedding.

She called me into her parlor, where the lace curtains never moved and the air always smelled faintly of mothballs and lavender. Her eyes were hard, her patience worn thin.

I still had many things to take care of, so I declined politely.

She dropped her previous gentle act and scolded me: “You’ve been married for three years and still haven’t given us a grandchild, and you still won’t let my son move on?”

Her voice rose, echoing down the hallway. I could almost hear the neighbors pausing at their own chores, straining to catch the drama.

I lowered my head and replied, “Of course I allow it. I’m just busy these days and don’t have the time.”

Whether or not I allowed Caleb to marry again was never up to me.

Why did she want me to prepare for it?

I didn’t want to argue, so I replied indifferently, shutting her down.

On the way back to my room, I ran into Caleb again.

He wore a crisp, pale shirt, his eyes bright and his features refined, sitting with Lauren and brewing coffee on the back porch.

She wore a red agate and pearl hair clip, smiling as she poured coffee for him.

When she bent down, the hair clip didn’t move.

Steam curled from the mug, and their gazes lingered affectionately in the white mist.

When he was young and newly a lawyer, he often used work as an excuse to spend all day in the study.

He had never done anything like this with me.

I paused, but didn’t stop—hurrying back to my room as if running away.

My mind was in turmoil.

I couldn’t even focus on the account books.

That breathtaking moment from my youth had trapped me for three years.

Only today did I finally see the truth—

Caleb’s feelings for me were fake.

His feelings for Lauren were real.

I stared blankly at the ledger until my maid, Abby, brought me the dowry inventory: “Ma’am, it’s all checked. Except for what was sold earlier for Mr. Foster’s needs, a few items are still missing.”

Abby’s voice was gentle, her hands careful as she set the list on my desk. She looked at me with concern, but didn’t press.

I looked up sharply: “Which ones?”

My parents had given me so much back then, I couldn’t remember it all.

She replied, “A pair of red agate and pearl hair clips, a blue-feathered wedding tiara…”

Red agate and pearl hair clips—

I’d seen them on Lauren’s head.

I barged into Lauren’s room.

She was sitting in front of a polished vanity mirror, trying on the wedding tiara.

Her wedding to Caleb was in six days. Everything was so rushed.

I thought Caleb must have planned to marry her for a long time, preparing everything in advance.

But she had gone to the storage room and taken the blue-feathered wedding tiara my mother had left me.

I was so angry my chest hurt.

I reached out and tore the tiara from her head.

The delicate hairpins came out one by one and fell to the floor. Some caught in her hair, but I yanked them out anyway.

She gasped in pain, her hair a mess, forced to tilt her head up and plead, “Please, let go—I’ll take them off myself.”

Her voice shook, barely above a whisper. Her hands trembled as she reached for the fallen pins.

I held my tiara, staring at her coldly.

Lauren fell from her chair to the floor, hair in disarray. A few strands came away in my hand and drifted to the ground.

She looked pitiful, her eyes full of tears: “Natalie, if you’d just said so, I would have taken them off myself. Was that really necessary?”

I kept my face cold and stepped closer, towering over her as she cowered on the rug: “You took my things without asking, and you still ask if it was necessary?”

She bowed her head and just cried, like a flower in the rain.

Her shoulders shook with silent sobs. I felt a flash of guilt, but it burned out just as quickly as it came.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind me.

Caleb strode in, pushed me aside, and pulled Lauren into his arms.

His entrance was abrupt, like a thunderclap. He wrapped his arms around Lauren, shielding her from my glare.

I staggered back two steps, steadying myself against the vanity.

The tiara slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor.

The sapphire was now faintly cracked.

For a moment, nobody moved. The only sound was my own ragged breathing.

He looked at me, his eyes full of disgust and unfamiliarity, as if he’d never known me.

“Natalie, why are you making things difficult for her?”

My grievances caught in my throat. In the end, I could only choke out, “She took what my mother left me.”

His voice turned cold: “It’s just a headpiece—what’s the harm in letting her wear it for a few days?”

“You’d rather break it than lend it to Lauren?”

“Now that you’ve lost your support, quit making trouble.”

I stood there.

It was already spring, but I felt chilled to the bone.

Caleb always knew how to hurt me the most.

The sapphire on the tiara was cracked.

Lauren buried herself in Caleb’s arms, frowning—she didn’t like it anymore.

He comforted her gently: “I’ll have another made for you. It’ll be ready in time for the wedding.”

I bent down, picked up the broken tiara, and walked out alone.

My heart clenched so tightly I could barely breathe from the pain.

Just a few more days.

Once everything is arranged,

I’ll leave.

I gripped the tiara so hard it left marks in my palm, but the ache in my heart was sharper still.