*
When Nathan had texted and invited Adeline up to Mountain View, she knew something was up.
At their favorite Vietnamese restaurant, he slid a small velvet box across the table. Adeline swallowed and stared at it like it was a venomous snake.
“Relax,” he said. “It’s not what you think. Well, it sort of is, but—look, just open it.”
Inside, Adeline found two very large diamond earrings. Diamond earrings she hadn’t seen in ten years—since she had sold them at a jewelry store the first day she arrived in the past.
She stared at them, her mind reeling. Had he bought them from the store? Did he know she wasn’t from this time? Was this his way of telling her? She had always held Nathan at arm’s length, never letting him get close enough to discover the truth about her. Maybe she had gotten sloppy. If so, what did it mean? Was the present about to shatter as she held the two diamond earrings?
“You hate them,” he said.
“I love them.”
“We sold it.”
Adeline looked up.
“Speed.io. We got the wire transfer yesterday. I couldn’t tell you because of the NDA.”
Adeline nodded. She was starting to breathe again.
“The sale has given me a lot to think about. I’ve spent way too much time on that company in the last few years. I want to change that. I want to spend more time with you. I want to see where things go. Maybe move in together—”
Adeline closed the box and pushed it back across the table. Daniele’s words echoed in her mind: Someone very special gave them to me. Someone who’s no longer in my life.
Since arriving in 2008, Adeline had assumed that the future version of herself had given the stones to her. But that wasn’t the person she was referring to. Nathan was that person.
“I can’t give you what you want.”
He squinted. “What do you mean?”
“The thing is, I’m starting a company of my own now. And like yours, it’s going to take a lot of my time. I think it’s what I’m meant to do at this point in my life.”
Nathan shook his head. “Ships in the night. I get off as you get on.”
Adeline motioned to the velvet box. “Should—”
But she knew what he was going to say: “Keep them. I want you to have them.”
*
The next day, she took the earrings to a jeweler.
“I need to know, is there anything engraved on these stones? In small letters?”
The man put the stone under a microscope and said, without looking up, “No. They’re completely clean. Not even a GIA inscription.”
“I need something engraved on them.” Adeline took a piece of paper and scribbled down the phone number for Shen Photo.
*
Adeline received an email from Elliott the following day.
Dear Daniele,
I actually discussed our meeting with a few colleagues of mine. We’d like to hear more about what you’re proposing. No promises, but I’ll say we’re intrigued.
Elliott
Adeline smiled. She would soon see her father again. And then she would have almost ten years before she lost him again, and in those ten years, she hoped, was the answer to getting him back.
FIFTY-THREE
For reasons Adeline couldn’t quite identify, she was nervous about the meeting with the scientists who would found Absolom Sciences.
Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen her father in ten years. In his mind, in the case of Daniele Danneros, they were meeting for the first time. Would it be awkward? Would she be able to hide the emotions she knew would come during the meeting?
If living in the past had taught her anything, it was how to be a good liar. But even this would be a challenge.
She decided to have her associate partner sit in on the meeting and ask questions. His name was Greg, and he was a recent Stanford MBA. He was a ninja with a spreadsheet, golfed constantly, and loved grilling start-up founders. It was almost like a sport for him, as if he thought a certain amount of verbal pain had to be endured before an early-stage investment was allowable. Adeline told him to go easy on this group—they were scientists, not steel cage fighters.
A few months before the meeting, she had purchased a historic home on Cowper Street in Palo Alto. It was a Queen Anne-style house that had been used by a law firm, which had outgrown it. She had it furnished, but the seven-thousand square feet home wasn’t staffed. She could have had some of her staff come up from Santa Barbara, but she didn’t much see the point. Adeline and Greg would do the meeting alone.
They waited in the foyer for the scientists to arrive. Every few minutes, she wiped her hands on her dress and tried to focus on her breathing.