“You were going to sell it,” I said.
“Yesterday,” Vanessa said. “I was on my way to a jeweler in Kansas City who was going to buy it. I stopped at Walmart because Danny wanted candy for the drive. I took it off to put lotion on my hands in the car, and I put it in my coat pocket, and there must have been a hole…” She shook her head. “I didn’t notice it was gone until we were back on the highway. Twenty minutes later. I turned around and drove back like a crazy person. I thought it was gone forever. I thought Danny was never going to have his surgery.”
She looked at Ellie.
“And then a little girl came running up to me,” she said. “Holding it in her hand.”
“And the phone call,” I said. “At the Walmart. You went white.”
Vanessa looked at Danny.
