He followed.
Not walking.
Almost running.
The girl noticed him after half a block.
She turned, saw an expensive man coming toward her too fast, and immediately stepped back. Her hand tightened around the candy bag. Her eyes searched for exits.
Street-smart.
Ready to run.
“That necklace,” Nathan said, trying to catch his breath. “Where did you get it?”
Her expression hardened.
“I didn’t steal anything. I’m just selling candy.”
“No. I don’t care about the candy.” He heard how abrupt he sounded and forced himself to lower his voice. “The butterfly. Please. Where did you get it?”
Her hand rose instantly to the pendant, covering it.
“It’s mine.”
“I believe you.”
“Then why are you asking?”
Because my dead wife wore that exact necklace.
Because I watched a jeweler in Paris make it by hand.
Because seeing it around your neck feels like the past has just walked up to me in the middle of Manhattan and demanded an answer.
He said none of that.
Not yet.
“My name is Nathan Reed.” He reached into his pocket slowly and took out a business card, careful not to move in a way that would frighten her. “I think that necklace may connect us to someone I loved very much.”
She did not take the card.
“Rich guys always think everything connects to them.”
The sentence should have offended him.
It didn’t.
It sounded too true.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
She lifted her chin.
“Lily Williams.”
“Lily,” he repeated. “Did someone give you that pendant?”
“My mom.”
The sidewalk seemed to tilt beneath him.
“Your mother?”
“She gave it to me before she had to go away.”
Her voice faltered on the last two words, but she recovered quickly.
“She said as long as I had it, she’d always be with me. So no, you can’t buy it.”
“I’m not trying to buy it.”
“Then what do you want?”
Nathan looked toward a café across the street. Warm lights glowed behind fogged windows. People sat inside with coffees, coats hung over chairs, pastries in glass cases. The girl was shivering badly now, though she pretended not to be.
“Hot chocolate,” he said. “A table by the window. You can sit where everyone can see us. You don’t have to go anywhere with me. I only want to ask you about the necklace.”
Lily studied him for a long moment.
“Huge windows?”
“Yes.”
“And I sit facing the door.”
“Of course.”
“And you don’t touch the necklace.”
“I won’t.”
She seemed to weigh hunger against caution.
Finally, hunger won.
“Fine,” she said. “But if you’re weird, I scream.”