No, it wasn’t the conversation with Lidia that left her unsettled. It was her niece’s fixation on the Electric Rose. She wished her father had never discovered that diamond! She knew, or should have known, from the very beginning that the diamond was cursed. Not in the sensationalist way the stupid tabloids implied, but it was truly a trigger for misfortune. No one could deny that.

The first warning bell should have been that after years of her father bringing her into every meeting, consulting her about everything from brand strategy to design, he was suddenly tight-lipped about the launch of the Electric Rose. All she knew was that he was hosting a black-tie party at the store, with hundreds of press and VIPs invited. She and her mother went to Vera Wang for custom evening gowns, and her mother said with a wink, “Maybe we’ll be coming back here soon for a white dress.” Elodie, who prided herself on being grounded and work-focused, almost swooned.

Her father encouraged her to bring Liam as her date to the party. She hesitated; six months into their relationship, it was their first public outing and she was nervous that he’d find it overwhelming. Growing up in the Manhattan spotlight, like other children of the rich and famous, she was used to cameras and the occasional odd item in the gossip columns. But Liam was from a small town in Pennsylvania. His parents had never even been to New York City. He once told her he hadn’t eaten in a real restaurant until college.

“I want you to be there, but I’m warning you it’ll be a circus,” she said.

The night of the party at Pavlin & Co, they arrived together in a Lincoln Town Car, and when he came around and opened the door for her, she felt beautiful for the first time in her life.

The crush of press outside the store on Fifth Avenue was overwhelming. Security had to help them through the front door, and they traversed a red carpet as if they were going to the Academy Awards.

Paulina arrived in a car with Celeste and Brodie, and photographers called for Paulina by name, jockeying for a photo they could use in gossip columns. She was dressed in hot-pink silk, a vintage Halston gown that tied around her neck and billowed out below her waist. But even her attention-grabbing sister couldn’t outshine the true star of the evening: the Electric Rose. Elodie had devoured that morning’s New York Times article about the remarkable size and clarity of the stone her father was introducing into the public view. It was a heady thing to be custodian of such a treasure. She couldn’t help but feel a touch of reverence for the moment at hand.