Chapter 14 - THE DAY SOPHIE SAW THE RING AGAINA year later, the prosecutor’s office returned property that was no longer needed.
One item:
The emerald ring.
I did not want it.
My attorney asked what to do.
“Sell it?”
Maybe.
“Return it?”
Also possible.
I took it home temporarily.
Bad decision.
Sophie saw the evidence envelope on my desk.
“What’s that?”
I should have moved faster.
She saw the green square.
Her face changed.
Immediately.
I closed the envelope.
“It’s going away.”
She stood very still.
Then:
“Vanessa’s?”
“Yes.”
“Can she come get it?”
“No.”
“Is she coming here?”
“No.”
Sophie’s shoulders relaxed.
Then she said:
“I hate it.”
I understood.
But I also knew objects become more powerful when adults pretend they are magic.
“It’s just a ring.”
She looked at me.
“It hurt.”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s bad.”
I sat beside her.
“Vanessa used it badly.”
Sophie considered that distinction.
Then asked:
“Can we make it not hers?”
That surprised me.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
We eventually sold it through an estate jeweler.
Not secretly.
Not dramatically.
I placed the proceeds into a local child-advocacy nonprofit that funded therapy for families who couldn’t afford it.
I told Sophie only the simple version.
“The ring paid for some kids to talk to helpers.”
She liked that.
“Then it’s not bad anymore?”
I smiled.
“It’s still a ring.”
She smiled back.
That was better.
May you like
Objects don’t heal.
People change what the objects get to mean.
