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I sit at the table and spoon some eggs onto my plate.
‘Let’s have it. What did he do?’ Zachary typically cuts to the chase.
‘Zachary!’ Mommy scolds.
‘It’s okay. He didn’t do anything. I’ve needed some space for a while.’
‘He’s terribly cut up about it. He keeps calling to ask if I know what he did. I’ve told him to talk to you, but he refuses. I’m not meant to be mentioning this really,’ Zachary says between bites.
‘I know he deserves an explanation, but I don’t have one,’ I reply, frowning at my plate.
‘You better think of one, just in case he asks tonight. He’s a decent bloke, Scraps. He needs something to move on. He came home to his perfect life and with no warning, his fiancée, the one person he’s had a thing for his whole life, the only person he’s ever really loved, is gone. All he gets is one sentence on a piece of paper. I mean, that’s pretty brutal.’
Daddy looks at me with surprise. I feel the shame wash over me.
‘You kids didn’t have a fight?’ Daddy asks.
I can’t look at him.
‘He didn’t treat you badly, did he?’ Isszy adds, concerned.
Zachary bursts out laughing, losing half of the scrambled eggs in his mouth to the table. I hate him sometimes.
‘Jas? If he only had one kidney left, he’d give it to her; even now. He’s obsessed. His entire life plan revolved around making Scrappy here happy.’
He points his fork at me. He knows I hate that nickname. It was what I called him before I could say Zachary.
‘That’s enough, Zachary,’ says Mommy firmly. ‘She’s hardly doing cartwheels. As much as it saddens me, Jasper will move on. He’s bringing a date tonight, so maybe he’s moving on already.’
‘Who? Katherine?’ Zachary rolls his eyes. ‘His mom invited her. He wasn’t going to come, out of respect for you and Dad.’
This is news. I feel the walls closing in. ‘Can we not talk about this any more please?’ I ask quietly.
‘Yes of course, darling.’ Daddy reaches out to hold my hand and the subject is immediately closed.
‘I have a gift for you, Mommy,’ I announce, going to my bag and returning with a wrapped box. ‘I hope I’ve done it justice.’
Mommy carefully unwraps my present and lets out a gasp, before her eyes start to fill with tears.
It took close to a year, but I managed to get Cartier to replicate an intricate pair of diamond earrings that were given to her by her grandmother. She’d worn them at her wedding to represent her absent family, along with a matching necklace. However, Mommy and Daddy had fallen on hard times when Zachary was three and I was a baby, so she sold the set to keep our family going. That jewellery, the way Daddy told it, paid the rent, kept the lights on, put food on the table and kept us all warm for over a year and a half. It was the only thing she had from her family, but she gave it up without being asked. Zachary reaches under his chair and produces a larger box. It’s the necklace.
‘Mommy, we know. Thank you for always putting us before yourself.’
‘Hugh!’ she scolds Daddy as she starts to really cry.
And then Isszy puts another little box on the table. Using the same design, she had a brooch created with an intricate DM integrated into the pattern.
‘Oh, Isszy, it’s beautiful,’ Mommy whispers, unable to contain her emotion.
There is one more piece.
‘Is it okay?’ Daddy whispers to me.
I nod.
Daddy reaches into his pocket. ‘Lia? Jasper wanted me to give this to you. He’s sorry he couldn’t be here this morning, but he will see you tonight.’
Daddy produces a long box. It contains a bracelet of the same design. Jasper had sent his designs back to the jeweller more than the rest of us and had also secretly had my engagement ring made using the exact same design. I hold back the tears. This is not about me.
