“Your last reading was spot on,” she said. “My sister showed up for the first time since I’ve lived here. And then my niece, whom I haven’t seen in fifteen years. And then, Jack’s proposal.”

“All good things,” Maud said.

“Well, on the surface. But you know how I feel about marriage.”

“Because of the curse,” Maud said, her eyes soft with empathy.

“I can’t tell him that. But . . . yes.”

Maud was the only person aside from Lidia she’d confided in about the whispers of a curse in her family. They’d parsed the idea endlessly, the way a person might examine their early childhood with a psychiatrist. They compared the history of the Electric Rose to other cursed diamonds, the most famous being the rare, blue, forty-five-carat Hope Diamond.

Four centuries ago, the Hope was stolen from a Sita idol in India, and the thief was soon after killed by dogs. Every subsequent owner suffered financial ruin or premature death. Then there was the Black Orlov, originally 195 carats, which was set as one of the eyes in a statue of the Hindu god Brahma. It was also stolen from India; a diamond dealer brought it to the U.S. in 1932, before jumping out of the window of a Manhattan skyscraper. The Russian princesses who later acquired the diamond also leapt to their deaths.

“A curse starts with a transgression,” Maud told her years ago. “The notoriously cursed diamonds were all stolen. Your family was the first and only owner of the Electric Rose.”

She had a point. And yet, the minute her father brought the diamond into the family, bad luck started. Elodie lost her first love when Paulina was summoned home for publicity, her parents became embattled for the remainder of their marriage, and ultimately Paulina and her husband were killed in a freak accident, leaving their daughter orphaned. Even The New York Times mentioned the curse in Paulina’s obituary. She believed her relationship with Jack had remained unscathed only because they never tempted fate by getting engaged.

“Celeste, I’ve known you and Jack a long time. Speaking as your friend here, I don’t want you to let this get in the way of your happiness.”

She looked at her incredulously. “What’s that supposed to mean? You suddenly don’t believe in these things now that you’re happy with Alvie?” She hated herself for lashing out, but Maud’s new skepticism felt like a betrayal when she needed an ally the most.

Maud didn’t flinch.

“I believe it takes a lot of factors for bad luck to dominate a situation. You have to look at the entire picture. I would never want to see a client act or not act based on one reading, or one element in the overall universe.”

Celeste pulled a rubber band from her wrist and gathered her hair into a knot. “Well, let’s see what the cards have to say.”