“She can have it if she wants,” Leilani says carelessly.
“Okay,” the clerk nods, “I’ll let her know.”
The clerk runs daintily across the store and informs the woman. Instead of accepting the gift the woman becomes even more outraged.
“What? I won’t take handouts from her,” she screams, “I just want you to know that I’m a VIP customer and I bring many of my friends here as well. Instead of respecting that you hurried to please her. Well, I want you to know, you won’t have clients like her every day. This shop relies on customers like me and my friends, but after today we certainly won’t be returning!”
“Miss, I’m sorry, I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” the clerk says.
“What? A misunderstanding?” the woman shouts, “I and my friends all witnessed what you did. How dare you pretend I misunderstood? Get your manager out here. I want to file a complaint against you.”
Leilani continues to read the magazine, raising it to block her face from view. She wants nothing to do with the angry hoard of women. However, the tone of their voice has drawn the attention of other customers and more people stop their shopping and turn to watch events unfold.
A clerk approached Leilani, “Miss, we’ll need your PIN.”
Leilani curses silently—she forgot to ask Waylen for the credit card PIN.
“Excuse me. I have to make a phone call,” Leilani says.
Leilani walks to a quiet corner in the shop and dials Waylen’s number. The conversation in the shop stops, and people strain their necks to try to hear Leilani. She doesn’t want to make a phone call—it feels like begging and her dignity won’t allow that. But she reminds herself that she desperately needs the cash. Additionally, the clerks have already bagged the jewelry and it would be humiliating to leave without it.
The one rings once and then she hears the sound of an angry breath on the other end.
“Hello, Waylen? It’s me.”
“I know,” he says flatly, “What’s wrong?”
“I need the PIN for the credit card you gave me yesterday.”
She can hear him breathing on the other end, but he doesn’t say a word.
“Hello, are you still there?” she asks, uncertainly.
“I’m busy,” Waylen says coldly.
Leilani blushes with shame and anger upon hearing his cold rejection.
“It’s just four numbers. I won’t keep you,” she says, hating the way her tone sounds like she’s begging.
He hangs up on her. Leilani holds her phone dazed by a type of frustration she hadn’t felt before.
“I should’ve known he wouldn’t be so generous,” she thinks, “I was a fool to trust that the card would work after his abnormal behavior last night.”
The shop clerk stared eagerly at her throughout the call. She can guess why Leilani’s look has changed and she’s upset that she won’t get the commission after all. Leilani swallows her pride and walks to the reception counter.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, “My husband would prefer I don’t buy these right now.”
The woman making the complaint smiles maliciously.
“All the attitude of a wealthy woman, but she can’t even afford a single piece of jewelry on her own,” the woman says, “I warned you not to treat us unfairly, but you favored her over us. Well, I tell you I refuse to buy that necklace now. The nerve of some people to come in here and demand service when they can’t even pay.”
The woman turns to Leilani, “Are you running a scam?”
The shopping assistant was all smiling with Andrea before, but now she scowls darkly. Leilani glances at the loud woman and puts on her shades. She doesn’t want to deal with them, but the woman takes Leilani’s silence as evidence of shame and guilt.
“That’s why they say to marry for love and not money,” the woman says, “Your husband may have money, but if he doesn’t love you he won’t spend it on you.”
Another woman quickly agrees with her friend, “You’re right. He can give another woman a ring worth 200 million but he’s too stringy to buy his actual wife jewelry. I couldn’t stand it if I were you.”
“What are you talking about?” the shop clerk asks, intrigued by the gossip,” A 200 million dollar ring? Who did he give it to?”
“It’s a ring with a gorgeous pink diamond,” one woman explains, “He gave it to Leonie Summers—she posted a picture of it on her private Facebook account. God, I think it’s every woman’s dream to own a ring like that.”
“Let me see, it’s here somewhere,” says the woman with the phone as she flips through Leonie’s Facebook pictures.
She holds her phone out to reveal a picture of Leonie at a press conference. A huge pink diamond glitters on her finger. Leilani recognizes the ring instantly.
“How do you know it’s from Mr. Bamford?” the shop clerk asks.
The woman pulls up a picture from a celebrity gossip site. It shows Waylen at an auction. Though only Waylen’s back is visible, Leilani recognizes his figure. If that weren’t enough, she can see Robert standing beside him. The woman holds the phone up high in Leilani’s direction to make sure she sees the photo.
Though Leilani doesn’t realize it, the woman with the phone isn’t just upset because Leilani took her necklace. She’s Michelle Cindy’s cousin, and she’s furious about what happened to Michelle. Michelle is still in the hospital with seven broken ribs after being brutally beaten by Waylen’s bodyguards.
Leilani takes a quick look at the picture. She can see that Waylen holds a ring box with a unique pink diamond ring. There’s no doubt that it’s the same one that Leonie has.
“Two hundred million?” Leilani fumes, “How generous of Waylen to give Leonie a ring worth two hundred million. Meanwhile, he’s too stingy with me to even give me a credit card PIN.”
Leilani narrows her eyes beneath her sunglasses. She has no choice but to return home. She locks herself in her room and tries to devise another way to get the money. Instead, she finds herself browsing the internet.
She stares at the pictures of Leonie at the press conference, wearing the same ring that Waylen holds in the picture at the auction. Disgustedly, she closes the browser and opens her email.
She types, “Miss Summers, I keep wondering if you’ve received my email yet. Please contact me as soon as you can. Best wishes, Leilani Bamford.”
Leilani hears one of the maids greeted her husband from outside her door and she steels herself for a confrontation with Waylen.
“Where is Mrs. Bamford?” asks Robert’s voice.
“She’s been in her room all afternoon,” the maid answers.
Leilani hears footsteps fading down the hall. Waylen doesn’t come into the room.
One of the maids knocks on her door at dinner time to ask her to go downstairs for the meal. The maid’s voice wakes Leilani who had begun to doze after starting to browse the internet again. She notices that Waylen’s study door is still shut when she passes by.
She recalls Waylen’s abnormal coldness in her room last night and his cruel indifference this morning when she phoned him from the jewelry shop. Surely he knew just how deeply he was humiliating her. She picks up a fork from the table and imagines stabbing it into his chest, but she’s alone at the long dining room table.
“Where is Waylen?” Leilani asks, looking at the door.
Though she knows he’s home, there’s no trace of him anywhere. She finds that quite odd.
“He says he’s skipping dinner,” a maid informs her.
Leilani shrugs and begins to cut into her beef Wellington. She had meant to cook for herself, but she wasn’t in the mood after the jewelry shop. Besides, she reasons with herself that ingesting more toxins won’t hurt her when she’s leaving so soon.
Gentle footsteps sound near the door.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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