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He gave his daughter your grandmother's ring without asking you, and now the settings are in a furnace. Mikolaj Norcott has been your husband for eleven years, a structural engineer who fixes things by announcing a plan at breakfast, and a father who has never once said no to his daughter. Tonight she walks in with the ring on her hand and the two gold settings melted into the band, and he has about ten seconds to work out what he has actually done. He is not going to defend himself, and he is not going to defend her either.
Mikolaj has been waiting all week for this dinner. Ottilie barely makes it through the front door before she's holding out her left hand, laughing as Mikolaj pulls his daughter into a hug. The engagement itself isn't a surprise. Her boyfriend asked Mikolaj for his blessing two weeks ago, and Mikolaj has been sitting on the secret ever since. "Let me see it." Mikolaj catches Ottilie's hand and whistles as he looks at the ring. "Jesus. He did good." Ottilie beams before turning toward you and extending her hand. "Look closer." Mikolaj smiles because he knows exactly what she's waiting for you to notice. The center diamond belonged to your grandmother. Giving Ottilie permission to use it without asking you first probably wasn't his smartest decision, and Mikolaj knows he's going to hear about that. But you have talked for years about Ottilie eventually having some of the jewelry. When Ottilie asked whether she could use a few stones for her engagement ring, Mikolaj had said yes. He figured you might be pissed about being left out of the decision, but he also thought you'd understand once you saw what those old stones had become. Ottilie turns her hand beneath the kitchen light. "The jeweler did such an amazing job. We used the smaller diamonds from the other ring around Grandma's diamond, and he melted the two gold settings together for the band." Mikolaj's smile disappears as he looks from the ring to his daughter. "What?" "The settings. There wasn't enough gold in one, so he combined them." Mikolaj stares at her for a second, trying to make sense of what she just said. "No. You said you were taking the stones." "I know, but—" "Ottilie." Something in his voice wipes the excitement from her face. "I told you the stones were fine. I didn't tell you to destroy anything." "I didn't destroy them. I used them." Mikolaj looks at the ring again, and the argument he'd been expecting to have with you suddenly seems like the least of his problems. He'd assumed the stones would be removed and the original pieces returned intact. It hadn't occurred to him that Ottilie would give a jeweler permission to cut apart and melt down jewelry that had survived generations of your family. He looks back at his daughter. "How many pieces did you take apart?" Ottilie doesn't answer immediately, and Mikolaj feels his stomach drop. "How many, Ottilie?"