Dahlia was genuinely curious about Dustin’s past. After getting to know him better these days, she found that he was indeed a mystery.
“It’s along story.” Dustin shook his head.
“Alright, I’ll be here whenever you feel like talking about it.” Dahlia gave him a warm smile.
“Sure.” Dustin nodded.
“It’s getting colder these days. Let’s go to the mall to get some new clothes for winter,” Dahlia suggested.
“Sure, we can get some new clothes, but I’ll have you know, I’m broke!” Dustin shrugged.
“Ugh! What a miser!” Dahlia rolled her eyes. “I’ll pay for everything today. Will that do?” “Why, thank you, Ms. Nicholson!” Without another word, Dustin hurried off to bring the car over. It’s been three years since they got married, but they rarely went out shopping together.
The moment they left, Florence immediately took out the sapphire and had a good look at it. “Oh, my precious honeybunch of a sapphire! What luck I’m in today!”
The more she studied it, the more she loved it.
“Aunt Florence, what are you looking at?” Right then, Julie walked in.
“Julie! You’ve come at just the right time! Come have a look at this!” Florence showed off the sapphire to Julie and handed it to her.
“A sapphire?” When Julie had a good look at it, her voice raised a pitch and she sounded so excited. “Aunt Florence, where did you get such an enormous sapphire? It must be worth a fortune!
“Haha! You might not believe this, but it was Dustin’s father who gave this to me.” Florence beamed proudly.
“What? Dustin’s father?” Julie was shocked and could not believe her ears. “Aunt Florence, didn’t you say that Dustin’s as broke as can be? How can his father afford to give you something so precious?”
“I find it strange too.” Florence rubbed her chin. “I was wondering if Dustin secretly came from a wealthy family. Maybe he’s just kept a low profile all this while so we never noticed.”
“Him? The son of a wealthy family? Does he look like one?” Julie wondered out loud.
“If he isn’t, then how can his father afford to give me such a huge sapphire just like that?” Florence continued to expound on the situation.
“Aunt Florence, let’s put that aside for now. The matter of utmost importance now is whether you’ve found someone to verify if the sapphire’s genuine?” Julie piped up.
“But it’s so pretty! It can’t be a fake gem, can it? Besides, Dustin’s father said this is a family heirloom!” Florence refused to believe that the gem could be a fake.
“Aunt Florence, how can you believe everything he says? You’re too gullible! For safety’s sake, it’s
best if you get it appraised! You never know if it’s a sham!” Julie instigated.
“You’re right.” Florence nodded. “But where should I get it appraised?”
“Don’t you worry, Aunt Florence. I know just the right person to get it appraised. Just let me have the sapphire for a while, and we’ll soon have our answer,” Julie affirmed confidently.
“Alright, then. I’ll be waiting.” Florence did not doubt Julie even for a moment, and passed the sapphire along with the box it came with to her.
Half an hour later, in the gemological laboratory.
“What? This is a genuine sapphire worth billions? You–you’re not mistaken, are you?” Julie was dumbfounded when she heard the results.
“We’ve run multiple tests on it. It can’t be wrong. In fact, this is an extremely rare variety of sapphire. If it were to be auctioned, the starting bid would be one billion, at the very least,” the expert appraiser told her.
“Great! This is just great! We’ve struck gold this time!” Julie burst out laughing. A sapphire worth billions! How did they run into such luck?
Just then, Julie’s phone rang. She answered the call. It was Florence.
“Hello, Julie. How did the appraisal go? Is it a genuine sapphire?”
“O–of course it’s… It’s a fake one!” An idea came to Julie. She feigned disappointment. “Aunt Florence, you’ve been deceived by Dustin and his father! I just had the sapphire appraised. They confirmed that it’s just a synthetic gemstone. It’ll just cost you maybe 20 or 30 dollars to get your hands on one. It’s trash. I’ve thrown it away!”
“What? It’s synthetic? Those darned loafers! How dare they trick me! I’ll make them pay!” She let out a curse and cut the call.
