My hands started shaking. I set it down, then snatched it back up like someone might take it.
The inscription was still there, scratched faint but clear into the back of the clasp:
“For Nana, from Mom and Dad.”
I leaned over the table. “Where did you get this? Who sold it to you?!”
The man behind the table looked up from his crossword puzzle. “Young woman sold it to me this morning. She was tall, slim, and had a big ol’ mass of curly hair.”
“Where did you get this?”
“And?”
“But no more questions,” he continued. “$200. Take it or leave it.”
My mouth went dry. I gripped the table edge.
That description — that was her. That was Nana.
I paid the $200 without blinking. I held the bracelet all the way home, gripping it like a lifeline. For the first time in ten years, I was holding something she’d touched.
I paid the $200 without blinking.
***
My husband, Felix, was in the kitchen when I walked in. He stood at the counter with his back to me, pouring the last of the coffee into a chipped mug we’d had since the year Nana was born.
He didn’t turn around. “You were gone a while, Natalie.”
I didn’t answer right away. I walked over, bracelet clutched tight in my hand, my heart thudding with something between hope and fear.
“Felix,” I said quietly, holding it out. “Look at this.”
“You were gone a while, Natalie.”
He turned, his brows furrowed. “What is it?”
“You don’t recognize it?”
His eyes dropped to the gold band in my palm. I held it higher, right under his nose.
His jaw locked. “Where’d you get that?”
“At the flea market. I was wandering around.”
“You bought it?”
“Where’d you get that?”
“A man was selling it. He said a young woman sold it to him this morning. She had big curly hair.” My voice shook. “Felix, it’s hers. I know it. Look!”
I flipped it over and showed him the engraving. “For Nana, from Mom and Dad.”
He didn’t even read it. He stepped back like it burned him. “Good lord, Natalie.”
“It’s her bracelet!”
“You don’t know that.”
“Felix, it’s hers. I know it. Look!”
“Yes, I do, Felix. I do know.” I felt my voice rise. “We had this made for her graduation. It’s not a knockoff. It’s not some coincidence. This — this was on her wrist the day she left.”
He set the coffee down harder than he meant to. It sloshed over the rim.
“You’re doing this again? I can’t keep going down this road, Natalie.”
“Doing what?”
“Chasing ghosts! You don’t know where that bracelet’s been. People steal things. And they pawn them. Heck, someone probably dug it out of a donation bin.”
I can’t keep going down this road, Natalie.”
“It has the engraving,” I said, staring at him.
“You think that means something? You think that proves she’s alive?”
“It means she touched it. Recently. Isn’t that worth something to you?”
He raked a hand through his hair. “She’s gone. You need to let her be gone.”
“But what if she’s not?”
