Everyone Had a Key but Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Say It

In the private room Allegra's burnt fingers pull Gabe's eyes from Claire's hurt ankle, and Claire finds her mother's bracelet on Allegra's wrist; Gabe will hand it back only if she says they are not breaking up, and she says it.

"Allegra wants to apologize," Gabe said. "Hear her out."

The door swung shut behind us.

He pulled out a chair and eased me into it, still holding my arm.

I caught my heel on the leg of the table, and pain shot through my ankle.

I sucked in a breath.

Gabe let go at once.

"Claire." He dropped to one knee. "Let me see."

"Oh, Gabe!"

Across the table, Allegra had jerked her hand back from the edge of a hot serving dish, and her water glass tipped over.

"That burned. God, that really hurt."

He turned toward her.

She held out her fingers before he could look back at me.

My phone buzzed on the tablecloth.

It was my old supervisor.

Before we issue the ticket, are you ready to travel tonight?

Across the table, Gabe wrapped a cold napkin around Allegra's fingers.

She leaned into him, explaining exactly where it hurt.

I wrote back: Yes. I'm ready.

A moment later the booking confirmation arrived.

Departure just after midnight, one connection, then Copenhagen.

I saved the ticket.

Gabe called a waiter over to look at Allegra's hand and came back to me.

"Show me your ankle."

"It's fine."

"You can barely put weight on it."

He knelt beside my chair, his face intent.

"Can you move it?"

I flexed it carefully.

It hurt, but I could.

He asked for ice, wrapped it in a clean napkin, and held it against the swelling.

For a moment, his thumb moved along my shin in the same gentle way it always had when I was hurt.

Then he glanced across at Allegra.

"It's your birthday, Bella, but tonight was meant for Claire. She's wanted to come here for weeks."

So that was why there was cake.

He turned back to me.

"I ordered the seafood pasta without chili. The chocolate mousse is yours, and I had them put lisianthus by the window."

He nodded toward the flowers.

"I remembered all of it."

"I know you did."

"Then stop looking at me like that."

"Remembering what I like doesn't change what I said."

I eased my leg away from him.

"We're breaking up. Please give me my bracelet."

Allegra crossed the room, her napkin already abandoned.

"He's trying, Claire. Most women would be thrilled if a man did half this much for them."

She rested her hand on Gabe's shoulder.

A silver chain slid out from under her cuff.

I went still.

The bracelet held a tiny hand-painted portrait under an oval of glass.

My mother had worn it almost every day.

After she died, my grandmother kept it safe until I was old enough to look after it.

The clasp was new.

I had come here to collect it.

Allegra was wearing it.

"Take that off," I said.

She looked at her wrist, then at Gabe.

"This? Is it yours? Gabe gave it to me." Her eyes went wide. "You really should have said something, Gabe."

He rose slowly.

"She asked to see it, so I let her try it on. Don't put it like that, Bella."

"Then she can take it off." I held out my hand.

For a second, no one moved.

Gabe looked from my open palm to my face.

"Claire. Say you didn't mean it."

"Give me my bracelet."

"Tell me we're not breaking up, and it's yours."

I stared at him.

He was waiting for me to give in, refusing to hear my answer.

"That was my mother's."

"I know. I'm not keeping it from you."

"Then give it back."

"Just say it, Claire."

Nobody spoke.

I could walk out and leave the bracelet with him.

Or I could say a few words that meant nothing and take the last thing I had of my mother home.

"Fine," I said, my voice flat. "I'm sorry. We're not breaking up. Now give me what's mine."

Laughter burst out of the next room.

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