Chapter 23 - The Engagement Ring
The engagement ring sat in my safe for seven months.
Amanda returned it through counsel.
State law would have treated the conditional-gift issue in a particular way, but we did not litigate.
She simply returned it.
I kept avoiding the safe.
Then Caroline said:
“You are letting jewelry rent space in your brain.”
My family has a way with empathy.
I sold it.
Not at full retail.
Nobody gets full retail.
The jeweler almost apologized for how markets work.
I put part of the proceeds into Sophie’s education account.
Then stopped.
I did not put all of it there.
Why?
Because turning every object from Amanda into money for Sophie would create its own symbolic burden.
I used the rest to take Emily and Sophie—separately, because we were not remarried—to a beach town for Sophie’s third birthday weekend.
Emily had her own room.
I had mine.
Sophie moved between both and slept badly in each.
She ate sand.
Cried because ocean:
“too loud.”
Then begged not to leave.
Normal family logistics.
No grand meaning.
That vacation mattered because nothing dramatic happened.
I began appreciating uneventful days.
May you like
They are underrated until you lose one.
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