“What was it?” Aster asked awkwardly. She always felt uncomfortable talking about Danielle’s parents. They fought constantly—Aster could hear them yelling from the estate—and this summer the fights had grown even more heated. Danielle was certain they were headed for divorce.
“Just weird stuff,” Danielle said, tracing a blue-painted toe through the sand.
“Come to Europe with me,” Aster blurted out. Why hadn’t she thought of this before? “I’ll be going to Paris, London, and Milan. I’ll pay for everything, just come. You could use some time away from here for a while.”
Danielle’s eyes were hard to read behind the Gucci shades Aster had bought for her. She twirled the diamond tennis bracelet Aster had given her as a birthday gift around her wrist. “I don’t know.”
“Come on,” Aster begged. “We can drink sangria by the bucket, hook up with European men, tan in Saint-Tropez . . .” She trailed off as something up the bluff caught her eye. Aster’s father was standing at the edge of the patio, gazing at them.
Aster half waved, thinking her father was looking for her. But Mason seemed to peer right through her. Aster glanced up again and realized he wasn’t looking at her at all—he was staring at Danielle. She turned to her friend and realized that Danielle was wearing nothing but a skimpy string bikini. Danielle had untied the top strap while they were tanning, the fabric precariously clinging to her chest.
An oily feeling filled Aster. But by the time she looked up the bluff, Mason was gone.
Now Danielle cleared her throat. Aster shot up. The past didn’t matter; it was a long time ago. “Let’s get this over with,” she said flippantly, walking into the conference room and sitting down. “Do your thing.”
Danielle plopped the folder on the boardroom table, then looked at Aster as if she wanted to say something. Aster pointedly turned away.
After a beat of awkward silence, Danielle cleared her throat and launched into a speech about Saybrook’s employee policies. Then she dimmed the lights, and a movie came on the screen. Classical music played as the words “Saybrook’s: A Family Legacy” appeared. “I’d like to walk you through the rise of the late Alfred Saybrook,” Donald Sutherland’s voice intoned. “His father, Monroe, opened Saybrook & Browne’s Jewelers in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1922. It was a local establishment, mostly dealing in gold. Monroe never had plans to expand.”
Up popped a picture of the store that Aster’s great-grandfather opened near Beacon Hill. The 1920s storefront was modest, with old-fashioned script in the window and impossibly tiny diamonds in the display cases.
Aster glared at Danielle. “I already know all this.” Her grandfather used to tell this tale all the time.
Sorry, Danielle mouthed, but she didn’t stop the DVD.
“Monroe died from tuberculosis in 1938,” Sutherland went on. “Alfred was forced to take his place.” Next appeared a photo of Alfred in front of the store. A very young Edith—a teenager, probably—stood next to him, her arm looped through his elbow. Even though the photo was black and white, it was clear that she was a blonde, and that she was wearing dark lipstick. “But before long, World War II began, and Alfred bravely volunteered to fight.”
In the next photo—the same photo Mason kept in his study—Alfred was in a military uniform, standing with his friend Harold. “Edith kept the store running in the States as best she could, though times were tough—no one wanted to buy diamonds during the war. And then things changed. While Alfred was overseas, he found . . . this.”
A yellow stone appeared on the screen. Yeah, yeah, Aster thought. Not that she didn’t adore the giant, canary-yellow Corona Diamond, which her grandfather had found at a bazaar in Paris. But she’d practically come out of the womb knowing about it.
The video went on to discuss how the Corona Diamond elevated the company to a new stratosphere. Alfred opened a flagship store on Fifth Avenue and office space down in TriBeCa to grow the business. Soon Saybrook’s Diamonds became the place to go for engagement rings, anniversary bands, and tennis bracelets. Celebrities flaunted their diamonds on the red carpet. Dignitaries bought jewels for their wives. There was a famous shot of Jackie Kennedy wearing a Saybrook’s pendant to a presidential ball, and a quote of her saying that Saybrook’s was the only place worth going for something precious.
“Alfred Saybrook’s death rocked the international jewelry community,” the voiceover said, showing a picture of Alfred shortly before his death five years earlier, wearing his trademark black suit and wing tips and little round glasses. “But now, the business is stronger than ever, and Saybrook’s stands by Alfred’s principles of integrity, quality, and craftsmanship.”
Then the screen went dark, and the lights came up. Danielle cleared her throat. “Um, I hope you found that informative.”
Aster stared at her. “Are you serious?”