Chapter 188

Alice Sterling sat with her eyes closed, trying to piece everything together in her mind. Noticing she didn’t want to continue the convo, Jessica Lane sighed and clung to her arm, giving her a comforting squeeze now and then. As night fell, Edward Hawthorne lit up his phone, only to find no new replies from Alice. He paused his work, pretty sure she was still mad about what he said that morning. He opened a drawer, took out the piece of mutton fat jade he'd brought from home earlier, contacted the jeweler, and headed straight to the studio. Once there, he placed the jade on the table and said, his tone steady, eyes dark as ink, “Make it into a bracelet. Do whatever you want with the leftovers.” The designer’s eyes lit up. After admiring the jade for a second, he already had a rough design sketch forming in his mind. He quickly grabbed a customer detail sheet. “What size should Mrs. Hawthorne’s bracelet be?” He pointed to several sample rings on the table, just in case Edward misunderst