Page 20 of Our Big White Lie
“While you’re here,” Mom said. “Have you girls picked out rings?”
“Not yet.” Tori smiled. “We were going to go shopping this week.”
“Do either of you have your hearts set on anything in particular? Any designs?”
Tori and I exchanged glances, and we both shrugged.
“Not really,” I admitted. “Probably just something simple? I don’t need anything big and flashy.”
“Neither do I.” Tori wrinkled her nose. “Not really my style.”
Mom nodded slowly. Then she pushed herself up and said, “Wait here.”
Tori and I looked at each other. She shrugged. So did I.
Mom returned a moment later, and as she sat in her chair again, she showed us two small velvet boxes. “These were your great-grandmothers’ rings. My grandmothers.”
I straightened. “Oh. Really?”
“Mmhmm. I was holding on to these for you to choose between when the time came.” She handed me the boxes. “My mother left them to me to give to each of my daughters, but Ionly had one, so…” Then she smiled at Tori. “Well, now I have two.”
Tori touched her chest, and her smile made my heart flutter. “Aww. Thank you!”
I admittedly felt guilty about this for the same reasons I felt guilty for everything surrounding this wedding. But the way Mom looked so proud and happy—I mean, that was the whole point of what we were doing, wasn’t it? So it wasn’t wrong. I hoped.
I put one of the boxes on the coffee table and carefully opened the other. Inside, tucked into the velvet padding, was a filigreed gold band with a small round diamond. It was soldered to a slightly wider band with the same pattern.
“That was your Great-Grandma Carson’s ring,” Mom explained.
“It’s really pretty,” I whispered.
Tori leaned in close. “That pattern is so cool!”
“It is.” I tugged the ring free and turned it between my fingers so we could both look at the delicate filigree. “Do they even make rings like this anymore?”
“Not in my price range,” Tori said dryly.
I laughed. “I know, right?”
“You won’t find a diamond like that anymore, either,” Mom said. “It’s a… European cut, I think? They’re all machine-cut now, but they were cut by hand back then. So they’re not quite as precise or sparkly as they are now, but they’re still beautiful.”
“It’s really pretty.” I didn’t know much about diamonds, so I had no idea how much difference there was between the one in my hand and a modern one. I just knew my great-grandma’s ring was gorgeous.
Mom gestured at the other box. “Those are your Great-Grandma Mathers’s rings.”
I handed the first to Tori and picked up the second. Inside that box, I found an engagement ring and a wedding band. They were slightly wider than the other set, and they were silver instead of gold. The diamond was a touch bigger and set into the ring rather than on the raised setting like the other.
“That set is white gold,” Mom explained. “Your aunt told me it needs to be rhodium-plated so it’ll be bright silver again.”
I brought the ring closer, squinting at it. Against the deep red velvet of the box, it looked perfectly silver to me.
“Can I see it?” Tori asked.
We traded rings, and she held the silver set up against a sterling silver band she wore on her right hand. Then I understood what Mom was getting at—the wedding rings were ever so slightly yellow.
“So we have to plate it?” I asked.
“You don’t have to.” Mom shrugged. “It’s perfectly pretty the way it is. But Aunt Lacey told me that it needs the rhodium plating if you want it to be more silver-looking.”
