Clara looked at him, at his back as he protected Vanessa, at the disgust in his eyes for her, and suddenly found it ridiculous. She had clearly wanted to warn them, had nearly fallen down after being bumped by him, and her hand was bleeding, but in his eyes, she had become the one who was "deliberately causing trouble."
She looked down at the blood on the back of her hand, then at the gleaming silver object beside the shattered ornamental stand—the Bennett family brooch she'd kept on the top shelf. It had been her mother's coming-of-age gift, a token of her family's heir status. A precious sapphire nestled in a platinum base, the Bennett crest engraved on the back . Not to mention its value, that sapphire alone could buy half the Foster family's assets . When the stand toppled over, the brooch had also fallen to the ground, a crack forming on the edge of the sapphire, like her heart now, shattered beyond repair.