The house smelled of morning coffee and old wood. I ran up the stairs to our bedroom, my heart rate rising with every step.
I opened the heavy oak wardrobe, pushing aside Damon’s gray suits and my own row of beige cardigans.
At the very back, behind a stack of winter blankets we had not used in years, there was a dark, narrow space where the floorboards met the wall.
I slid the gray box into the corner, covering it with a wool shawl.
If Damon found it, he would ask why I needed to draw attention to myself, his voice calm and reasonable while he made the dress seem like a foolish mistake.
I closed the wardrobe door slowly, ensuring the latch clicked shut.
I lifted the small lid and took out the pearl earrings, holding them in my open palm. They were small, slightly yellowed by thirty years of storage, and one of the silver backs was loose.
I held them up next to my ears, wondering if they looked too old-fashioned for a fancy restaurant. I reached for the small mirror on the wall, but my hand stopped before I could lift it.
The sound of the television downstairs hummed through the floorboards, a quiet drone of afternoon news. I looked at the little pearls, remembering how my mother only wore them on Sundays or when my father took her to the county fair.
Damon came down the hallway, his footsteps heavy on the floorboards, and stopped by the bedroom door frame. He adjusted his shirt collar, his eyes moving from my face down to my hands.
“Are we wearing the family heirlooms now?” he asked.
“I was just looking at them,” I said, my voice trailing off as I went to put them back in the box.
“Good,” he said, turning back toward the stairs. “We wouldn’t want you looking like you’re trying too hard at your age.”
“They were my mother’s,” I said.
“I know whose they were,” he said, his voice carrying back from the stairwell. “I’m just saying, let’s keep things simple.”
He laughed, the quick, dry sound he always made when he was teasing, but I kept my hand on the velvet lid until I heard him reach the kitchen. I decided right then that I would leave them in the drawer.
