Chapter 2 - THE SHATTERED STONES
The young woman did not blink.
Her dark eyes remained completely dry, devoid of the tears the older woman clearly expected to see.
Instead, a chilling calm settled over her features.
She raised both of her hands.
Her long, manicured fingernails hovered just above the nape of her neck.
Her fingers were entirely steady.
She located the small platinum clasp hidden beneath the cascade of dark hair.
With a precise, mechanical click, the secure lock unhooked.
The heavy chain loosened instantly.
She pulled the necklace forward, lifting the cold metal away from her skin.
The ambient warmth of her body vanished from the stones in a fraction of a second.
She dropped her hands.
She let go of the chain.
The heavy emerald-and-diamond necklace plummeted through the air.
It struck the polished marble floor with a sharp, violent clatter.
Clink. Clatter.
The green stones bounced against the hard stone, scattering loose diamonds across the glossy surface.
A tiny platinum link snapped under the impact, sending a loose emerald rolling toward the base of a display case.
The older woman flinched at the sound, her eyes darting down to the scattered wealth on the floor.
She gasped, a sharp intake of breath that sounded like a deflating tire.
"You—you ungrateful—" the older woman sputtered, her composure finally fracturing at the edges.
The young woman looked down at her bare throat.
The skin there was already cooling down, stripped of the heavy iron cage she had worn for three agonizing years.
She rotated her shoulders, feeling the sudden, weightless freedom of a bird escaping an open cage.
She did not bend down to pick up the green stones.
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She stepped right over a scattered diamond, her stiletto heel grinding a microscopic scratch into the marble.
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