Family Jewels Read Online Free Page A

blinked past dry eyes, her brain foggy from the remnants of a dream that made no sense.
    Had she really heard Moses cry out? Or was it just her overworked imagination?
    Anxiously she scanned the security panel near the door. All the little lights were steady green. The digital clock showed the hour was nearly midnight.
    She tunneled her fingers through her hair and stretched on a jaw-cracking yawn. Her mouth tasted garlicky and the muscles across her shoulders burned with fatigue, testimony to the hours she’d spent sketching. After a quick trip to her favorite art supply store—and a spicy meatball pizza from Mama Maria’s Trattoria—she’d jumped right into producing ideas for her contest ring. The first attempts were taped across the wall in a straight line like new recruits ready for a general’s inspection.
    And they were awful.
    Groaning loudly, she rubbed her knuckles across her gritty eyes. The drawings weren’t strong enough applications of her normal high standard, certainly not enough to get a ribbon placing in this year’s contest. Last year she’d earned an Honorable Mention with her fantasy-inspired smoky-quartz and amethyst choker.
    This year she had to do better. With thousands of entries in each category, even a fourth place ribbon would help to secure her name in the industry as one of America’s up-and-coming premier jewelry designers.
    Inspiration, that’s what she needed. Perhaps if she had the perfect, unique gem to create a ring for…a stone of remarkable beauty, one like…
    Her gaze flew to the small jeweler’s box on her finished shelf. Inside the satin-lined case sat the most amazing diamond, the one her newest client, Mr. Andrews, had dropped off two days ago. She’d expected him to present her with the typical stone, something the average blue-collar guy could be expected to buy for his new fiancée.
    What she’d seen had shocked her into dumbfounded silence.
    Upon greeting the tall, well-groomed Matthew Andrews at her door, she’d been immediately struck by his gentle demeanor. His soft brown eyes peered eagerly from behind a pair of thickly lensed, black-framed glasses. His nut brown, wavy hair was touched with silver at his temples. When he shook her hand, his grip was firm but soft-skinned. Then he’d reverently handed her a carefully wrapped square of beige cloth. It turned out to be a cotton handkerchief. She’d had to suppress a smile since most people had jeweler’s envelopes or small, plastic viewing boxes for their loose diamonds.
    Out from the handkerchief rolled a blinding white, perfectly round cut diamond. At least five carats. The gem rolled back and forth on her desk, blazing with fire like a miniature sun. For an embarrassing number of seconds she’d been unable to do more than stare at it, totally in awe as if she were an amateur.
    Could it really be…a Hot Siberian?
    That’s what the industry used to call the flawless Russian white diamonds unearthed from a small mine deep in the perpetually frozen land of Siberia. The gems were so rare they were considered freaks of nature. You just didn’t see stones of this incredible beauty, icy fire and above all— perfection –-that often. Once in your lifetime, if you were lucky.
    With her heart pounding, she’d picked up her jeweler’s loupe to give the gem a cursory inspection. Her client paced back and forth between her desk and the hallway, as anxious as a man in a maternity ward awaiting the birth of his first child.
    She’d felt her mouth go slack.
    Flawless . D-color , exceptional cut . Not a single , tiny inclusion anywhere inside this beauty . Oh man , today is my lucky day !
    Giddy delight had gathered inside her and made her want to dance on her work table in celebration. She took a steadying breath and put the diamond down. “Well, Mr. Andrews, I’m honored you chose me to certify this gem for you. It’s one of the best, if not the best, I’ve ever seen.”
    He’d stopped pacing, his eyes