“Thanks for taking the time to meet,” Sloan said. “I know it’s a holiday weekend and you’re all very busy. Normally, I wouldn’t press. But my team feels strongly about coordinating this with the Pavlin & Co centennial, and the clock is ticking. An event of this magnitude takes a lot of planning.”

“Well, now that we’re all here, we can sign the paperwork and move forward,” Elodie said.

“We never agreed to sign the contract,” Gemma said, glancing at Celeste.

“I did,” Celeste said.

What? “You did?”

“On the condition that Elodie tell us where to find your mother’s ring.”

Gemma turned to Elodie, heart pounding. Elodie crossed her arms, her expression steely.

“My parents sold the Electric Rose under the utmost secrecy ten years ago. It was through a private dealer, completely underground,” she said.

Gemma felt like she’d been physically struck. It took a few seconds to find her voice. Sold? Sold?

“They got rid of it?” Celeste said, sounding incredulous. She moved closer to Gemma, putting her arm around her shoulders. She leaned against her aunt as if she were the only thing keeping her upright.

Her mother’s ring was gone.

“Why?”

“It was a business decision.”

“She left that to me. The only thing I would have of hers.” Gemma’s mind raced. Someone bought her diamond. And it was hers. Her grandfather had given it to her mother, and her mother had given it to her. It was a family heirloom, and there was such a thing as succession. Didn’t those things matter?

“I know it’s not the answer you wanted, but there it is.” Elodie turned to Celeste. “So now it’s your turn.”

“I’m sorry, Gemma,” Celeste said before leafing through the document and signing the last page. “I really am.”

Gemma felt sick. The ring was long gone. Sold not long after her parents’ accident. The news felt like another death. And it brought the feelings of that awful day rushing back to her.

She and her parents had been on one of their many trips. Gemma’s early childhood had been a constant rotation of luxury hotel rooms and yachts anchored off the coast of Europe, punctuated by the occasional visit to New York to see her grandparents. It would have been lonely except for all of the time she and her mother spent together while her father was off scuba diving and parasailing and all the other adrenaline-fueled activities her mother wasn’t interested in. Instead, the two of them would shop and take long lunches at cafés and sit on the beach. By that time, Paulina was tired of being hounded by photographers and she’d found anonymity in narrow cobblestoned streets and obscure harbors. But on that particular trip, her mother was learning how to sail.