Chapter 21
‘… How rich and how great you will be!’
‘Will you be my wife?’ said Chase.
He was fresh from the office, still in his work suit, down on one knee in our kitchen, holding out a velvet ring box. I was in his burgundy silk robe, waiting for the kettle to boil.
‘I will,’ I said, a smile spreading wide across my face.
He lifted the ring. Bunny’s cabochon emerald had been polished and mounted on a thick gold band, flanked by baguette diamonds. He slid it onto my finger. It felt heavier than anything I’d ever worn before, and it gleamed like it had been engineered for maximum dazzle.
The claws gripping the stone were like an eagle’s talons. The emerald stood high and proud, a dome of wealth on my finger. It was the kind of ring that couldn’t just be worn. It had to be managed. Removed before doing anything remotely practical, like cooking or sleeping.
‘Welcome to the Fuller family,’ he said.
We kissed. Then he glanced at his watch. ‘God, we’ve got to be there in forty minutes.’
We were ten minutes late. Bunny was already in full organisational mode in the courtyard, berating Pablo over the temperature of the champagne beside a white linen-covered table, where the flutes were lined up with military precision.
‘Thank God you’re here, kids!’ she called out. ‘Chase, go and find your father. Florence…’ She paused, eyes scanning me from head to toe. ‘Now that is a wow cocktail dress, isn’t it, Chase?’
The smile on her coral lips was triumphant.
The dress – a fern-green, knee-length number with soft shoulder padding and shiny gold buttons – was not to my taste.
But after our initial expedition and the unplanned police encounter, I didn’t have the energy to argue. It was the first thing she’d picked up.
‘It’s great, Mom. Matches the ring,’ said Chase, one foot already inside the house.
He vanished, leaving Bunny and Pablo to admire my newly bejewelled hand.
‘Very nice,’ Pablo said. ‘Mr Chase has good taste.’
Bunny gave a dry snort. ‘If he’d had anything to do with it, it’d have come from that dreadful friend of his who runs Krohn’s Jewellery Mart in San Bruno. All that factory-made crap. Now, Pablo, go sort out the canapés and bring out the silver. Use the good trays, not those scratched ones.’
She handed him a bunch of keys with the gravitas of a sovereign issuing royal orders. Then she turned back to me, her eyes fixing on my gold clip earrings. ‘Florence, come with me. Those earrings aren’t suitable.’
I followed her.
Guests began to arrive promptly at five thirty.
Bunny, Chase Sr, Chase, and I formed a receiving line in the courtyard, just as Chase’s younger brother Brady, and his wife, Martha, had done five years before.
Brady and Martha now lived in Maine. According to Chase, Bunny didn’t like Martha, which meant they only came west once a year and stayed as briefly as possible.
The crowd assembled looked like they’d walked straight off the pages of Town & Country.
There were diamonds the size of grapes, unnaturally smooth skin, and that polished sheen that comes with generational money.
I smiled, shook hands, air-kissed, and allowed myself to be paraded.
My accent, youth, and the ring were winning credentials.
The borrowed pearl-and-diamond earrings tugged uncomfortably on my earlobes, but Bunny had insisted.
Chase stuck by me for the first thirty minutes, arm curled around my waist, nodding and smiling as I retold the ‘How we met’ story for the twentieth time. But then, he vanished. I scanned the courtyard and terrace. No Chase.
‘Darling, you must meet Candice and Hector De Malta,’ Bunny trilled, suddenly appearing at my side. ‘Candice was practically raised with Chase.’
The name struck like a tiny gong. Candice. The one groomed for the Fuller life. The one from the debutante ball story.
Candice swept in, impossibly glamorous. Tall, slender, glowing with high-bred effortlessness. Her chestnut hair was perfectly curled, and her black Dior cocktail dress fitted like a glove.
‘So sorry we’re late,’ Candice said, kissing Bunny with cheek-to-cheek precision. ‘Ariadne wouldn’t settle with the new nanny.’
‘I know,’ cooed Bunny. ‘New nannies can be such a chore, can’t they? Is Hector with you?’
A second later, Hector intercepted. He was much older, polished, wearing the approved uniform of navy blazer, loafers, and a golf-club tan. Bunny fawned over them both with nauseating reverence.
‘Candice and Hector, meet Chase’s fiancée, Florence.’
Candice turned to me, eyes scanning me with cool appraisal. She saw the dress was last season, the earrings weren’t mine.
‘Good to meet you, Florence,’ said Hector, pecking me on the cheek, retreating swiftly to grab a glass of champagne.
‘Hello, Florence,’ Candice added, her voice syrupy and tight. ‘Chase’s told me so much about you.’
I opened my mouth to respond but was interrupted by Chase’s timely reappearance. He’d swapped his flute for a heavy highball glass. His voice was too loud and fast.
‘Florence’s just lovely, isn’t she?’ he said, throwing an arm around me with proprietary flourish.
Candice’s jaw didn’t move. ‘Adorable,’ she said. ‘And I hear you met in Thailand. Chase does like Thailand.’
She dragged the word out as if we’d met in an opium den.
Bunny let out a high, trilling laugh and clapped her bangled wrists together. ‘Oh my God, I can see you two are going to be great friends!’
I nodded and smiled, the muscles in my face barely cooperating. Somewhere deep in my brain, a small voice muttered: That’ll never happen.