~Panaito
NARI
It was an invasion.
Cartier.
Prada.
A'Marees.
Rolex.
Versace
Alexander McQueen.
Oscar de la Renta.
Christian Louboutin.
Everywhere I looked, I saw designer dresses, shoes, purses, and jewelry…so much jewelry that it could have been a vault. The pieces were so expensive they came with their own private sec
urity. They poured into the manor like…like an invasion of Fifth Avenue.
“What the hell is going on here?” I asked O’Phelan as I came down the stairs. I looked to see where they were walking into the family room. I didn’t bother waiting for him, moving across the foyer into the room by my damn self.
And there, sitting on the fireplace, with her mutts resting at her feet and her daughter on her lap, surrounded by millions of dollars’ worth of shit was none other than Calliope. One of the dealers held up a large case of diamonds for her to look over.
“What are you doing?”
She glanced up from the box and smiled at me. “Hi Nari, I hear you have an eye for diamonds. Come help me pick some out.”
“Some?”
She nodded, looking back at the case and lifting one of the rings. “It is pretty, isn’t Gigi?”
The girl in her lap nodded but then pointed to another one. “I like it, Mommy! Can I have one?”
“How about earrings?” she asked her, lifting a pink diamond to her daughter’s ear. She waved over another dealer who held up a mirror.
“I can have it, Mommy?” Giovanna grinned, looking into the mirror.
“Of course, just this once you can pick anything you like,” she said, and her daughter got up and moved to look over the piles of shopping bags.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“I’m picking out diamonds. What does it look like?” she replied without looking up from the cases. She placed three other rings on her fingers, tilting her head to the side as she looked them over. A frown appeared on her lips. “Are you sure these are the biggest you have in the store right now?”
“Yes, Mrs. Callahan, anything bigger would need to be ordered.”
Mrs. Callahan? What the fuck was going on? I’d only been gone for two days to finish some work and to drop off my daughter with her father. I came back to speak to Ethan…and instead, I was watching this…this crazy woman shopping for diamonds?
“This one is called the Sabra,” the dealer said, lifting a massive stone up for her to see. “It is a 9.90 carat, Asscher-cut diamond ring, set into a beautiful platinum band.”
“It will do,” she replied, obviously disappointed. “I’ll take them.”
“Them? So, this and the earrings for your daughter?” he asked, grinning like a madman who just saw fucking Christ.