“Come on in and I’ll get us some cocoa or something.” Abby led the way into the library that served a dual purpose as a den.
Jess stopped in the middle of the room. “No cocoa for me, thanks anyway,” she said, a little nervous. “I actually came here for a reason. I have something to show you and I want to get your honest opinion, your first reaction to it.”
“What is it?” Abby came forward, her happy face now wreathed in concern. “Are you okay, Jess?”
“I’m fine,” she reassured her friend. “Come sit with me and I’ll show you.”
When they were seated side by side, Jess unfolded her hand and revealed the bag. She undid the string and slid the necklace out of the soft folds. The dancing light from the fireplace flickered over the heavy stones.
“Oh my gosh. That’s stunning. Where on earth…” Abby’s voice faded a little. “That looks like … but it can’t be. I’d swear it’s identical to…”
“I thought so, too,” Jess said, and her stomach twisted, though she wasn’t sure if it
was excitement or disappointment. Why on earth would Roberta Sullivan have a Foster family heirloom? It made no sense. “Do you still have the picture of Edith and your grandmother?”
“Yes, yes, of course. I’ll be right back.”
Abby disappeared out the library door but returned in seconds, clutching a picture frame in her fingers. “This is it.” She sat down again and held out the picture. Jess held the necklace so it formed a perfect oval. There was no question. If this wasn’t the same necklace, it was a damned good imitation. The stones, the setting, everything …
“Where did you find this?” Abby asked.
“I’m telling you this in absolute confidence,” she said quietly, the stones in her hand a warm reminder of the faith Rick had placed in her. “You can’t say anything to anyone, okay?”
“Of course.”
“It was in a safe deposit box that Roberta left Rick.”
“What?” Abby’s brow furrowed. “But why would Roberta have it? Was there any explanation?”
Jess swallowed thickly, knowing that her next words were going to betray Rick’s trust, and yet she couldn’t think of another way to explain the connection. “Maybe.” She closed her hand around the necklace. “You promise you’ll keep this to yourself?”
Abby’s gaze locked with hers. “I promise, Jess. Good heavens, what could be so serious?”
Jess swallowed. If she wanted to help him, to help him get some closure, she needed answers. And this was Abby. Jess trusted her completely.
“Rick was adopted, Abby. Roberta and Graham Sullivan were your great-aunt Marian’s last clients. That’s really the only link I could come up with. The only connection Rick has to the Foster family was his adoption. And maybe it’s something completely innocent. Maybe Marian sold it to Roberta. Or maybe it was a gift, but…” Jess paused. “I don’t know. I just have a feeling that the necklace is more important than that. Why else would Roberta have hidden it away for all these years?”
Jess would have sworn right then that Abby looked guilty of something. “What is it?”
Abby shook her head. “I don’t know how to say this,” she murmured. “Tom and I … we’ve known about Rick’s adoption for a while. But we never said anything. We didn’t know if Rick knew, and we didn’t know if we’d be violating a privacy law or something. We found out when Ian Martin brought by the last of Marian’s things.”
Jess shook her head. “Funny how Ian tends to be at the center of all this stuff. He had the safe deposit box key. Do you think there’s a connection there, too?”
Abby sat back. “I couldn’t tell you. But I can do some digging.”
Jess thought for a minute. Technically she hadn’t broken Rick’s confidence because Abby had already known. But if she asked Abby to go ahead, it was a deliberate decision to meddle around in his past. What if they discovered something they didn’t want to know?
Would it be better than not knowing at all? And maybe it wasn’t a bad thing, in which case Rick deserved some happy news, didn’t he?
“I think he needs to know in order to really move on,” she finally responded. “The whole reason he went to the bank was to get it over with. Now he’s left with more questions, you know?”
Abby laughed. “You have no idea. I went through a lot of questions when I arrived in Jewell Cove, and it took me a while to sort through the answers. And there are still things that are a mystery to me, and I know I’ll probably never know the entire truth. But I know enough.”
“It’s probably better not to mention this to Rick until we know more,” she suggested. “He’s had a real rough go, dealing with Roberta being gone and adjusting to his injury. No sense stirring something up if it comes to nothing.”
Once more Abby’s frown deepened. “Are you sure? He might not like us nosing around.”
The dark, guilty feeling slipped through Jess again, but she shook it off. “He said it was okay if I looked into the necklace. And besides, he’s been doing so much better lately. The last thing I want to do is cause him to have a setback, you know?”