Jeffrey's hand trembled as he reached for the box on the nightstand, the box that had traveled the world in search of perfection, just for her.
The ring inside wasn't just jewelry. It was the sum of months of devotion, of decisions agonized over in secret, of imagining her reaction over and over. Emerald or diamond? Emerald was her color as it reminded him of her eyes when she was determined, when she was fierce. But emeralds were too soft. Too fragile.
And Joanne… Joanne was not.
So he had chosen a diamond. The hardest, most enduring gem. A stone that wouldn't break under pressure. A stone that, like her, had endured the weight of time and heat to become something unshakable.
And it couldn't just be any diamond.
