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could anyone ever part with
something so magnificent? The thought of him giving it up still
baffled me, but I wasn’t about to question my luck any longer. This
necklace was mine. It became mine at 5:42 pm, and it would stay
mine until—
    Wait a minute. 5:42 pm?
    My heart hammered.
    I was supposed to meet Erica at Leonardo’s
Self-Service Ristorante at 5:30, and I was late, so late. What if
she got worried and called Daddy? We’d promised both our parents
that we’d stay together on this trip. God only knows how much he’d
freak out if he found out I was on my own.
    I couldn’t wait to thank the old shopkeeper for his
gift. I had to go. Now.
    With my purse thrown over one shoulder and my
necklace clasped tightly around my neck, I shouted out a single
goodbye before racing through the door. I thought I heard him call
after me, but I didn’t have time to turn back. I was in trouble,
more trouble than I’d ever been in before, and I couldn’t waste
time with even a single arrivederci.

Chapter Two
     
    Erica wasn’t at the restaurant when I arrived, and
from what I could tell, she never had been, so I ordered a plate of
pesto lasagna, settled down in a booth by the window, and waited
for her to show up.
    By 7:30, I finally figured out she wasn’t
coming.
    In all my life, I don’t think I’d ever wished for a
cell phone more than I did right then, but of course my little
pay-as-you-go plan didn’t have international coverage. No, Erica
had the phone with all the options. If I could have just remembered
her number, I might have been able to call her from the
restaurant’s pay phone, but as always, I hadn’t thought ahead. I’d
just programmed her digits into my own phone—the one I’d left on my
bedside table back in Texas—and now my only option was to make the
long trek back to our hotel alone.
    It was after 8:00 by the time I made it up to the
second floor lobby, and the lady at the front desk just waved me
through before I could ask for our key. Erica must have beaten me
home after all.
    God only knew how much she must be freaking out.
    I paused at the door to our room and sent up a quick
prayer. Dear Lord, please don’t let my over-protective cousin be
on the phone with my parents. I really, really don’t want to deal
with a lecture right now, so please, just take a little pity on me,
okay?
    With my final request made and my heart still
fluttering, I took one last deep breath and knocked. The door
opened almost instantly.
    “Adair?” Erica pulled me inside before I could even
speak. “Oh, God, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you
everywhere. I—”
    “Look, Erica, I am so, so sorry. I just found this
little shop, and I guess I lost track of time.”
    “Lost track of time? You lost track of time? Do you
know how close I was to calling the cops? Christ, another hour and
I might have even called your parents.”
    I sucked in a quick breath. “So you didn’t call them
yet?”
    “What do you think?” She held up her silent phone.
“If your dad was on the other line, I’m sure the whole hotel would
be hearing him right now.”
    I was so relieved to be in the all clear that I
couldn’t stop myself. I wrapped my arms around my cousin and
squealed “Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!” over and over again
while I whirled her around the room.
    She rolled her eyes when she finally shoved me away,
but at least she was smiling, too.
    “You know, Adair, I think you’re the only person
I’ve ever met who’s more worried about disappointing daddy than
getting abducted by serial killers.” She shook her head. “If I
could—hey, where’d you get that?”
    Her hands darted to my neck, and before I could pull
away, Erica’s fingers latched around the pearl still hanging from
my throat. After all the excitement over being late for dinner, I’d
half forgotten it was still there.
    “Adair?” She looked up at me with wide, brown eyes.
“Is this…is it real?”
    “No,” I said. “I mean,