“I didn’t know,” she said.
“He told me his wife had left him in the spring.”
“I told myself I believed him.”
“I’m so sorry.”
The two babies shifted against my chest.
I looked down at the gold circle in her hand.
It had cost more than a month of my rent.
“Don’t give it to me,” I said.
“I don’t want it.”
“Then what do I do with it?” she whispered.
“Sell it,” I said.
“Give the money to the women’s shelter on Pacific Avenue.”
“Somebody walking out of a house tonight will need it more than I do.”
She nodded, and for a moment, we looked at each other, two women with nothing in common but one man’s lies.
She said, “Thank you.”
Natalia stepped closer, took off her own bracelet, and laid it in Giselle’s hand beside the other one.
