Chapter 10 - Daniel Returned the Anniversary Gift He Never Deserved
One year after I left, a package arrived at my new apartment.
No mystery.
Daniel’s name on the return label.
Inside was the cream-colored gift box.
I almost laughed.
He had kept it.
Inside the box was something new.
A watch.
Men’s.
Elegant.
Still wrapped.
I recognized it immediately.
I had bought it for Daniel before everything collapsed.
It was supposed to be his anniversary gift.
I had hidden it in my office.
After finding the bracelet, I replaced the watch with the evidence and never gave it to him.
Apparently Naomi had later found the watch among my stored belongings and, thinking it belonged to Daniel, sent it to him.
He returned it.
There was a note.
Elena,
This was never mine.
Not because of the divorce.
Because the woman who bought it was celebrating a marriage I was already betraying.
Sell it. Keep it. Throw it away.
I just don’t want to wear proof of a version of me I wasn’t actually living.
—Daniel
I sat on the floor holding the watch.
Months earlier, that note would have destroyed me.
Now it made me strangely peaceful.
The next day, I took the watch back to the jeweler.
They offered store credit.
I declined.
Sold it through a resale service.
Then used the money for something completely ordinary.
A two-week trip to Italy with Naomi after my final radiation follow-up.
No charity.
No grand symbolic project.
No revenge.
Just Rome.
Florence.
Too much pasta.
Naomi raised her wine glass on our second night.
“To Daniel’s watch.”
I laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“To you selling Daniel’s watch.”
“Better.”
We drank.
For years, I had believed major pain required major meaning.
May you like
Sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes the healthiest ending for an expensive object is turning it into plane tickets and dinner.
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