<b>Chapter </b><b>140 </b>


    “You brought your sister back with you and didn’t even give me a


    heads–up?”


    Rowan sat stone–faced. “Since when did you get so tactless with your mouth?”


    He dropped onto the sofa, lit a cigar, and every movement radiated a kind of simmering aggression.


    After all these years as friends, Rex knew the drill. He sat across from Rowan, a knowing look on his face. “Rough dinner?”


    Rowan scoffed. “Lorraine showed up.”


    “What was she doing there?”


    “She joined us for dinner.”


    “So, little Elissa’s upset now?”


    Rex assumed Rowan and Elissa had argued–nothing new–but Rowan’s voice was cold, almost indifferent. “Upset? She can call Lorraine ‘sister–inw‘ whenever she wants.”


    “Like hell she would.”


    Rex grinned, twisting the knife. “She barely acknowledges you as her brother these days.”


    Rowan shot him a sidelong nce. “Whose side are you on?”


    “Yours, obviously.”


    Rex wandered over to the liquor cab, leisurely selecting a bottle of Macan. “But honestly, with your attitude, little Elissa will remarry before you ever sort things out.”


    “You think I care?”


    “Of course, you don’t,” Rex said, voice dripping with sarcasm.


    10:43


    He poured two fingers of whiskey into a square ss and slid it across the table. “But when Elissa was dead set on marrying Frank all those years ago, who drank himself into the hospital with a bleeding ulcer?”


    The room fell so quiet you could hear the clock ticking.


    Rowan’s eyes dropped, and for the first time, his voice wavered. “You think… back then…”


    “You did what you had to,” Rex said simply. “Given the circumstances, you weren’t even sure you’d survive yourself. Cutting her off was the right call.”


    He raised his ss, clinking it lightly against Rowan’s. “But Elissa loving Frank wasn’t wrong either. If you can’t move past that, you and she will only keep drifting further apart.”


    –


    A couple of dayster, Hayley called Elissa to let her know the replica of the Jade Pendant was finished and ready for pickup.


    Before her shift at the clinic, Elissa stopped by Hayley’s studio.


    Hayley, ever the night owl, was still awake when Elissa arrived. She dropped both pendants into Elissa’s palm. “Guess which one’s yours?”


    Elissa nced down and noticed Hayley had even aged them to match–right down to the identical gleam of the chains.


    But Elissa didn’t hesitate. She pointed to the one in her right hand. “This


    one.”


    “How’d you know?” Hayley was genuinely surprised.


    Elissa smiled. “Just a gut feeling.”


    Picking up the pendant took longer than she’d nned. By the time Elissa got to the clinic, she was slipping into the exam room right on time.


    One of the nurses teased her as she changed into herb coat. “First time in years you’ve cut it this close, Elissa.”


    213


    10:43


    “Really?” Elissa chuckled, then called the first patient.


    Time flew by. Just as herst patient left around noon, the exam room door burst open with a bang.


    “Elissa, where’s my pendant?!”


    It was Marcia.


    Elissa looked up, arching a brow. “Your pendant?”


    “Don’t y dumb.”


    Marcia marched over, snatched up Elissa’s bag, and started rifling through it like her life depended on whatever she thought Elissa had taken.


    Without a word, Elissa opened her right–hand drawer and pulled out the Jade Pendant. “Looking for this?”


    Marcia snatched it from her, threw it into her own purse, and red. “How did you convince Frank to give you this?”


    “I just told him…” Elissa’s lips curled into a slow smile. “I liked it, so he handed it over. Said I could borrow it for a few days.”


    Marcia’s voice was tight with fury. “Impossible. He’s always valued this pendant more than he values me-<b>” </b>


    “More than you?” Elissa interrupted, her tone light but her gaze steady. “Are you sure this pendant even belongs to you?”


    <b>3/2 </b>


    10.44