‘I’m sorry?’
Vanessa went on to explain about the ring hidden in the bread that had come from Stromboli’s bakery. ‘It was such a lovely idea, although a little risky too, I must admit. I did almost break a tooth.’
‘I see.’ The man seemed confused as if he wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but that hardly mattered.
‘My fiancé was raving about your food and, surprise apart, I have to say I thought your sourdough was absolutely delicious,’ she went on. ‘And seeing as your company has already played such an integral part in all of this, I’d like to get a sample menu and catering quote from you for our wedding. We don’t have a specific date just yet but it should be sometime later this year, possibly August?’
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. ‘Of course. I’m sure we’d be happy to provide you with a quote, and a sample menu would be no problem at all. Terri, our catering manager isn’t here just at the moment, but if you’d like to leave your details I’ll get her to phone you back.’
‘Thank you. That would be wonderful.’ Already Vanessa was impressed with this level of professionalism. Having lived in London for so long, she was expecting it to be difficult to organise a wedding in Dublin from afar. Good recommendations were everything, and what better recommendation for a catering company than the establishment that’d been directly involved in the proposal? ‘I’ll be visiting Dublin shortly, so perhaps my fiancé and I could pop in for a chat.’
‘We’d be delighted to see you. Can I take your name?’
‘Oh yes, of course. It’s Vanessa Fox. And my fiancé’s name is Ethan Greene,’ she added, before giving him her telephone number. She couldn’t help it; she just adored using the word ‘fiancé’ at every available opportunity.
She said goodbye to the man from the bistro and was just about to put down the handset when her internal line buzzed.
‘Brian Freeman for you,’ her assistant told her. ‘Line three.’
Vanessa hesitated for a bit, her finger hovering over the button for line three, before eventually making a decision. ‘Tell him I’m in a meeting.’
‘Someone’s been naughty,’ Justin said to Terri. ‘Or should I say very, very stupid?’
It was late afternoon and she’d just arrived for the evening shift. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked, frowning as she tied an apron around her waist.
‘I got an interesting call today from a lady who seemed very appreciative of our part in her fiancé’s wedding proposal.’
‘Did the guy pop the question over dinner here or something?’ she replied easily. ‘Can’t say I recall anything like that happening recently but Rachel might.’
Justin put his hands on his hips. ‘It was the strangest thing. Apparently
somebody
baked a Tiffany diamond ring into a loaf of our sourdough.’
Terri’s mouth dropped open; she was unable to believe what she was hearing. ‘The
fiancée
called here?’ Then, realising she’d unintentionally landed herself in it, she blushed furiously. Finally she met Justin’s gaze. ‘Something had to be done.’
‘Oh my God, Terri, what did you think you were doing?’ he exclaimed disbelievingly. ‘You had no right to take – or should I say
steal
– Rachel’s ring!’
‘It’s not her ring,’ she replied half-heartedly, but the words sounded weak and she knew it.
‘Still, it’s not your place to interfere. Just because you’ve gone gooey-eyed for this Ethan guy, it doesn’t mean he was telling the truth!’
‘What are you talking about?’ Terri tried her best to ignore the first part of that comment. ‘And of course he was telling the truth, something we both know Gary isn’t capable of.’ She folded her hands across her chest. ‘I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t going to stand by and watch her mooning over that diamond for a minute longer.’
‘So you just decided to steal it and give it away to some stranger with a sob story?’
‘It wasn’t stealing and Ethan isn’t a stranger.’ Terri felt she had to defend herself. ‘Look, Justin, the guy was too nice to take it back from Rachel, and since Gary had no intention of handing it over either . . . I had to do something.’
‘But you’ve seen Rachel moping around this last while. She thinks it’s her fault the ring is missing and is terrified of telling Gary.’
‘I know. So maybe this will bring everything out in the wash.’
‘Well, something is going to come out in the wash soon, that’s for sure,’ Justin said, sighing grimly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘That woman I spoke to, your man Ethan’s girlfriend, was asking about catering for their wedding. I told her you’d phone her back.’
‘What? Oh Christ.’ There were so many unpleasant scenarios that Terri couldn’t get a handle on them. ‘Why on earth would she want
us
to cater for a wedding in London?’
‘Because apparently the soon-to-be-Mrs Greene is one of our own, so the wedding will be taking place in the ’oul sod.’
‘Here in Dublin? You’ve got to be kidding me.’
‘Nope.’
‘Oh God.’ Terri put her hand to her face and her skin broke out in a cold sweat. She didn’t know what to think – or do – now. But surely Ethan wouldn’t want them to cater his wedding? The last time she’d seen him he looked like he never wanted to set foot anywhere near the place again, and who could blame him?
She looked at Justin. ‘Look, you’re right. I know I was wrong to take matters with the ring into my own hands,’ she admitted, shamefaced. ‘But it’s done now. Gary was never going to own up and I just couldn’t stand by and watch Rachel get sucked in by his lies. He’s a shyster, Justin; we both know that.’
‘Hmm, shyster or not, it looks like you’ve landed us all in the middle of it now,’ Justin said solemnly. ‘Because when that girl comes in here wearing Rachel’s precious ring, there’s going to be one hell of a shit storm.’
Chapter 36
Rachel was looking through Gary’s credit-card statement for December. Having puzzled for a while about the best way to get her hands on it, she quickly realised that a perfectly good reason was staring her right in the face.
She and Gary were in the process of setting up a joint account for the wedding expenses, and the bank had requested identification documentation and proof of address for them both.
‘Bank statements, utility bills, passport copy, you know yourself,’ she’d reminded him.
‘Well, I can get you a bank statement, but I’m not sure about the utility bill,’ he’d replied reluctantly. ‘I, ah . . . think I threw out my last electricity bill.’
A light bulb went on in Rachel’s head as she figured this was the opportunity she’d been waiting for.
‘What about a credit-card bill, then? I’m sure that would also do as proof of address,’ she said, trying to make her voice sound casual, but luckily Gary didn’t notice anything untoward.
He’d duly dropped the necessary documents into the bistro earlier that afternoon and now, in the privacy of her living room, Rachel took the opportunity to look through the Visa bill for the insurance charge Justin had mentioned.
If it was there, then she would tell Gary straight out that she had somehow lost the ring. If it wasn’t there, well . . . then Rachel didn’t know what she’d do.
She ran her gaze through a list of the most recent transactions, trying to pinpoint the New York purchases. There were loads of Fifth Avenue stores on there; one from Sachs, a couple from Bergdorf Goodman, and . . . ah, there it was: Tiffany & Co.
Rachel looked across the page to check the corresponding charge and blinked.
One hundred and fifty dollars? How could that be? She frowned. Gary couldn’t possibly have bought a diamond ring for that. She looked again at the figure, perplexed. Rachel didn’t think it was actually possible to spend so little in the store, unless it was for a souvenir or something.
Then, thinking of her own recent conversation with the Tiffany’s assistant about the deposit, it hit her. Of course! Gary had probably ordered the ring in advance and had paid for it long before, so the visit to the store that day was just to collect it. Perhaps the transaction she was looking at was the remaining balance, or for a gift-wrap service perhaps?
Chances were that was exactly what she was looking at, but unfortunately this didn’t help her in any way. If Gary had paid for the ring in increments, without the receipt there was simply no way of knowing how much it had cost in total.
She wasn’t sure why it mattered, really; she already knew how much he’d spent on it.
But assuming that he’d paid for it bit by bit with the credit card, did that mean the insurance would still cover it?
She flicked through the pages until she came to the final one. To her dismay there was no sign of the purchase-protection insurance Justin had mentioned.
Rachel gulped and looked again at her naked ring finger. It was coming up to three weeks since she’d last seen it, and having searched everywhere she could think of (not to mention avoided all Gary’s questions), it seemed unlikely it was going to turn up at this stage.
She sighed. There was nothing else for it; she had to bite the bullet and tell Gary the ring had disappeared.
Rachel bit her lip.
Whether the admission would cause her fiancé to disappear too remained to be seen.
Daisy had a dilemma. There was something very important she needed to talk to her dad about, but she didn’t think she could do it now.
Although she was pleased that he’d got the ring back, the truth was she’d been very concerned since that day Vanessa had tried it on and it didn’t fit.
Why didn’t it fit her, particularly when it was supposed to have been made especially for her?
‘I’m sure they just made a mistake with the sizing at the store,’ her dad said when he and Daisy spoke about it afterwards, and he’d explained how another nice woman in Dublin had helped him get it back. ‘Anyway what does it matter? All that matters is we’ve got it back and we’ve done what we set out to do.’
But it mattered to Daisy, because it didn’t feel right.
According to her dad, the ring had fitted Rachel. He’d told Daisy so when she asked him about it again on his return. And as far as she was concerned this was important.
Still, because her dad had gone to so much trouble to get the ring back, and seemed relieved that everything was now back to normal, Daisy thought she’d better wait a while before mentioning her thoughts on the subject to him.
She knew her mum was a big believer in fate, and that the universe was supposed to always make things right.
So had the universe made sure that she and her dad were in the right place the day that man got knocked down in New York, so that the bags would be swapped and the ring would end up with the right person?
Maybe her mum had made sure that the ring had gone astray so that it would find its way to the person on whose finger it rightly belonged?
Up until this morning, Daisy had believed that, but now she wondered what the universe was trying to say when it had led her to find the box hidden deep in the rubbish bin.
Vanessa was all moved into their house now, but she still didn’t understand how some things were done around the place, like how there was one bin for normal rubbish and a different one for recycling.
Recycling to help save the earth was important to Daisy, in the same way it had been important to her mum.
But while it had been bad enough trying to convince her dad to stick to the rules, it was even harder trying to teach them to a new household member, and Daisy was frustrated at yet again having to separate the recyclables.
This morning, while Vanessa was in the shower and her dad was out for a morning jog, Daisy had found more stuff in the regular bin that didn’t belong. She’d taken the trouble to fish out the plastic bag and the pink and white box that it contained.
And it was when she realised what the box was that her dilemma began.
First Signs Pregnancy Test.
Daisy’s heart skipped a beat. Did this mean she might be getting a baby brother or sister? It was something she’d have liked; but she had known it was impossible, given the circumstances. Until now.
Now that her dad and Vanessa were engaged they’d obviously decided to get started on being a family right away. She knew how much her dad wanted that too.
And in all honesty Daisy was pleased. Being an only child was lonely sometimes, and she had to admit that she’d felt even more alone since her dad had started going out with Vanessa. He didn’t read to her as much, and they didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time together, just the two of them.
So maybe a new baby would be a good thing.
But one thing was for sure: the discovery had solved her dilemma. Now Daisy knew about this, she couldn’t possibly confess to her dad her worries about the ring, and that it might not be on the right person’s finger.
Especially not if she, Dad and Vanessa were about to become a proper family in every way.
Chapter 37
Gary cranked up his bike and set off towards Rachel’s. She’d asked him to call over to her place tonight, and he’d reluctantly agreed, anticipating yet another bombardment of wedding stuff.