At my daughter’s funeral, my son-in-law’s mistress walked up to me wearing my daughter’s bracelet and whispered, “I’ve won.” I held my four-year-old granddaughter tightly and said nothing. But when the attorney read the will in front of the family, the woman’s face drained of color after learning that my daughter had left behind one final piece of proof.
The woman who helped ruin my daughter came to her funeral wearing her bracelet. Then she leaned close enough for me to catch the scent of her perfume and murmured, “I’ve won.”
I tightened my hold around my four-year-old granddaughter, Lily, and fixed my eyes on the polished walnut coffin beneath an arch of white roses. Inside lay my only child, Claire, dead at thirty-two after what authorities called a single-car accident on a wet road.
The police described it as tragic misfortune.
My instincts told me it had been carefully arranged.
Beside the coffin, Claire’s husband, Daniel Mercer, performed the role of grieving widower flawlessly. His shoulders shook at the appropriate moments. His eyes remained red. Whenever anyone looked at him, he pressed one hand over his heart.
Only I noticed that he never once looked toward the coffin.
His mistress, Vanessa Cole, did.
She stood beside me in a black designer dress, slowly twisting Claire’s silver bracelet around her wrist. Small stars were engraved along it, one for every birthday since Lily’s birth.
“That belonged to my daughter,” I said.
Vanessa smiled. “Daniel gave it to me. He said Claire would not need it anymore.”
My grief hardened into something cold.
Lily hid her face against my neck. “Grandma, why is Daddy holding that lady’s hand?”
Across the chapel, Daniel quickly let go of Vanessa.
Before I could answer, Daniel’s mother, Eleanor, came toward us wearing a strained smile.
“Margaret, this is not the time for unpleasantness,” she murmured. “Daniel is suffering. After the burial, Lily will come home with him.”
“No,” I said.
Her smile disappeared.
Daniel joined us. “Claire’s gone. I’m Lily’s father. You don’t get a vote.”
I studied him carefully. The expensive mourning suit. The fresh scratch near his collar. The watch Claire had given him after he promised the affair had ended.
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