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20
Then
IN LATE OCTOBER, SEVEN MONTHS AFTER DERRICK’S MURDER, Emma decided to swap her New York City rental apartment for a two-bedroom in Westport. She was consulting on several big projects for Halliday Advertising by then, and so it made sense workwise, but her decision was also based on encouragement from Tom. They were spending more and more time together and the schlep back and forth from the city was a pain. She knew that if things got really serious between them—and by this point she was hoping they would—it would probably be best to relinquish her gig with his company and focus on other clients, but for now the arrangement seemed okay since she wasn’t a regular employee.
Moving turned out to be simple enough. She’d been living a very pared-down existence, having gotten rid of every trace of her life with Derrick, right down to a couple of souvenirs from the trips they’d taken.
The one thing she’d hesitated about relinquishing were the five or six David Yurman bracelets and cuffs he’d given her early in the relationship. It’s not that she wanted any keepsakes from their life together, but she loved the jewelry—she’d had her eye on it even before Derrick gave her the first bracelet—and she almost always wore the pieces when she was doing talks and speeches. People often complimented her on them, and she liked that she’d developed a kind of signature look for herself professionally.
But when she slipped one on several weeks after Derrick died, the sight of it had made her nauseous, and she knew those had to go, too, that she wanted nothing at all that could remind her of him. A cousin of hers who lived on the West Coast became the grateful beneficiary.
