The older woman went completely still.

“What is your mother’s name?”

The girl answered.

The woman covered her mouth.

It was her daughter’s name.

The daughter she had spent twenty years believing had run away after losing her baby.

The woman in green stepped closer.

“This is ridiculous.”

But the older woman looked at her sharply.

“You knew.”

The younger woman’s face changed.

The girl clutched the pendant.

“My mom said someone gave her money and told her never to come back here.”

The older woman rose slowly.

“Who?”

The girl looked toward the woman in green.

“She said it was a lady who wore this exact necklace.”

The ballroom fell silent.

The woman in green instinctively touched the emerald necklace at her throat.

Her hand began to shake.

The older woman stared at her.

“You told me my granddaughter died.”

“No—”

“You told my daughter I never wanted to see her again.”

The girl started crying.

The older woman pulled her close.

Then she looked at the terrified woman in green.

“All these years, you made me mourn a child who was still alive.”

The woman backed away.

The older woman’s voice broke.

“And tonight, you just threw flowers at my granddaughter because you thought she had no family.”