Rachel treasures the heirloom jewelry her late mother left her, until one day she finds the box empty. With a confession from her husband, Rachel realizes that’s only half the truth. When she spots her mother’s earrings on another woman, all the puzzle pieces connect…
Now
I went to the store that morning for milk, chicken, and raspberries. An odd combination, but it was what I needed. The milk for coffee and cereal, the chicken for tonight’s dinner, and the raspberries for the raspberry and white chocolate muffins my husband loved.
A woman standing in the aisle of a grocery | Source: Midjourney
I went into the store hoping to get my groceries, but I left with a truth that I didn’t know needed to be revealed.
She was standing in the dairy aisle, our neighbor. Young, blonde, and recently divorced. She was looking at the various yogurt options, smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world. And if I’m being honest, she probably didn’t have any cares.
And hanging from her ears were my mother’s earrings.
A woman looking away at a grocery | Source: Midjourney
My breath caught in my throat. A sick feeling curled in my stomach. My hands clenched around the shopping basket so tightly that I was sure they were white.
No. No bloody way.
I forced my voice to stay light and breezy as I approached her.
“Mel, hi! Lovely earrings!”
A close up of a woman | Source: Midjourney
She beamed, touching them delicately as if they were the most priceless things in the world. They were.
“Oh, thank you, Rachel! They’re a gift from someone special, you know.”
A gift. From someone special. Someone married?
The world tilted slightly. I swallowed the burning rage rising in my throat. Mel looked at me for a moment, and I wondered if the guilt was eating at her. She didn’t act like it, but something had dimmed her shine in that moment.
“Oh, they’re simply beautiful,” I said, smiling through my gritted teeth. “But didn’t it come with a pendant and a bracelet? What a stunning set that would be…”
A pair of earrings in a box | Source: Midjourney
She blinked at me, confusion all over her face.
“I definitely would if I had those pieces. But I don’t. It’s just the earrings. But maybe my special someone can gift me the whole set.”
The ground steadied beneath me.
There it was.
Derek hadn’t just pawned my mother’s jewelry. He had gifted part of it to his mistress.
A shocked woman | Source: Midjourney
It was a selfish, well-thought-out plan.
Except he hadn’t planned on one thing.
Me.
An upset woman | Source: Midjourney
Then
I had been vacuuming under the bed, lost in the monotony of housework and a nagging nursery rhyme that was stuck in my head, when I spotted the box.
Something made me pause. Maybe it was instinct. Or maybe grief had sharpened my senses.
I bent down, picked it up, and opened the lid.
Empty. The box with my most prized possessions was empty.
A woman vacuuming | Source: Midjourney
The air left my lungs. The annoying nursery rhyme flew out of my head. And just like that, the shock hit me across my face.
My hands trembled as I stood up, my knees weak. I scanned my bedroom like the earrings, pendant, and bracelet might miraculously reappear before my eyes.
But they didn’t. Of course, they didn’t. Wishful thinking didn’t work like that.
There was only one person who I had shown the box and the priceless things inside. But would Derek… Was he actually capable of taking my things? Maybe he had put them away, knowing the importance that they held.
Maybe he had put them into our safe deposit box at the bank. But even if he did, why on earth wouldn’t he tell me?
An empty wooden box | Source: Midjourney
“Derek!” I stormed into the living room, where he was lounging with his laptop.
He barely glanced up.
“What, Rachel? It’s too early for this noise.”
“My mother’s jewelry. Did you take it?”
His brow furrowed like he was truly thinking.
A man using his laptop | Source: Midjourney
“No, maybe the kids took it. You know they’re into dressing up now.”
My stomach twisted again. Why would my children take something from my room? They probably didn’t even know about the box. And I was planning on passing down the jewelry to the girls anyway.
But still, kids have keen eyes. Maybe one of them saw something.
I turned and marched straight to the playroom, where my three kids were sprawled on the floor, lost in their toys.
A cozy playroom | Source: Midjourney
“Nora, Eli, Ava,” I said, almost breathless. “Did any of you take the box from under my bed?”
Three pairs of wide, innocent eyes blinked up at me.
“No, Mommy.”
But Nora hesitated. My eight-year-old, my oldest baby. The most sensitive and honest of the three, and the one most likely to give you a snuggle when you needed it.
She would tell me what she knew.
A little girl | Source: Midjourney
“I saw Daddy with it,” she said. “He said it was a secret. And that he would buy me a new dollhouse if I didn’t say anything.”
A sharp rage sliced through me.
Someone had stolen from me.
And that someone was my husband.
A dollhouse on a table | Source: Midjourney
I spent a long time with the kids, trying to figure out my thoughts and feelings while they played. Eventually, I had no choice but to confront him.
“Derek, I know you took it. Where is it?” I asked.
He let out a long sigh, rubbing his temples like I was the problem here.
“Fine, Rachel. I took them.”
I blinked slowly.
A man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney
“Why?” I asked simply.
His voice took on that tone of his that I absolutely hated. The slow, condescending tone that had always made my skin crawl.
“You were so sad after your mom died. I thought that a vacation would cheer you up, Rachel.” He picked up his beer can and took a long gulp. “So, I pawned them and bought us a trip.”
My fists curled. My vision blurred. I was… beyond shocked.
“You pawned my mother’s jewelry?! My dead mother’s things!”
The interior of a pawn shop | Source: Midjourney
“Rachel, we’re struggling! How can you not see it? Or do you choose to ignore it? The mortgage, the bills… I wanted to do something nice for you and the kids.”
White-hot rage filled me. I was ready to burst.
“Where. Are. They?” I spat out. “You had no right to do that without asking me, Derek! Return them. Now!”
He sighed dramatically.
An angry woman | Source: Midjourney
“Okay, I’ll return the tickets. I’ll fix it if you want everyone to be as miserable as you are. Seriously, Rachel, the kids see it. It sucks.”
I turned away before I did something I’d regret.
Miserable? Of course, I was miserable. I was in pain. I was hurting. My heart felt shattered and stamped upon, and my mind was a cemetery of memories.
My mother had died. And with that, my best friend, my biggest supporter, and the person who had loved me most in this world.
An upset woman | Source: Midjourney
It had only been two months without her. And this man was putting a timeline to my grief?
What the hell? Who had I married?
I missed her so much. Which was why Derek’s actions had hurt me so deeply. My mother’s jewelry was like a lifeline she had left behind for me. It was something physical, something that I could hold or put on when I needed her touch…
I remembered how she didn’t want me to become a stay-at-home mom.
A tombstone with flowers | Source: Midjourney
“Darling,” she had said, buttering a slice of homemade bread. “You have so much potential. As rewarding as being a stay-at-home mom is, are you sure it’s for you?”
“I don’t know, Mom,” I confessed. “But Derek said that we can’t afford a nanny, so it was either I become the nanny or I pay for one.”
“Promise me one thing, Rachel,” she said. “Keep writing your poetry, darling. Keep that side of you alive.”
A woman writing in a notebook | Source: Midjourney
My heart ached thinking about her.
But do you know what?
The next day, while shopping, I found out that the truth was even worse.
Now
I smiled at Mel in the grocery store, pretending to listen to her rave about Greek yogurt and chia seeds for breakfast.
A bowl of yoghurt and chia seeds | Source: Midjourney
“It really is the best breakfast, Rachel. It cleans out the gut and gives you more protein than eggs. Add some honey or chocolate chips, girl. Trust me,” she spoke fast, as if trying not to think or say anything that would give her away.
I smiled like I wasn’t seconds away from ripping those earrings off her ears.
She had no idea. She had absolutely no clue she had been part of my husband’s betrayal. Or did she? From the way she acted, I didn’t think she knew the value of it. In her eyes, she was standing in front of her boyfriend’s wife and using the expensive gift he had bought her.
So, I made a decision.
A woman in a grocery store | Source: Midjourney
I was going to take back what was mine.
And I was going to make Derek pay.
Big time.
The next morning, I played the part of the forgiving wife.
I was quiet, reciting Shakespearean sonnets in my head. I made pancakes for the kids. I made French toast for Derek. But I couldn’t get my encounter with Mel out of my head.
He was relieved, smug even. I’m sure he thought that I had slept on it and had finally let it go.
“It’s good to see you so chipper, Rach,” he said. “You know I love that smile.”
I wanted to slap him.
Pancakes and strawberries on a plate | Source: Midjourney
Focus on Shakespeare, Rach, I thought to myself.
“Derek, can I see the pawnshop receipt?” I asked, pretending that I just wanted to make sure everything could be bought back.
He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically but eventually handed it over.
“Nora,” I called, watching her pick at her pancakes. “Do you want to come with Mommy today? We’re going to look for Grandma’s jewelry.”
A smiling little girl | Source: Midjourney
“Yes!” she said excitedly.
I wasn’t sure about taking my child to a pawnshop, but if I’m being honest, that little girl was the only thing that would keep me calm.
We got ourselves dressed and found ourselves standing outside the pawnshop.
“We’re buying the jewelry, Mom?” Nora asked.
“Indeed we are, baby girl,” I said.
The exterior of a pawn shop | Source: Midjourney
And just like that, I went in and tracked down my mother’s jewelry. It wasn’t difficult, but I had to convince the owner that it was mine.
“It would make a good anniversary present for my wife,” he said. “But you look like you’re going to cry your little heart out.”
“It’s my mom’s, sir,” I said. “Please.”
I think he was more floored by being called sir that he just gave it over, not even trying to exploit me with the price.
A man in a pawn shop | Source: Midjourney
I kept the receipt. For later.
There was only one piece left.
The earrings.
The ones that Derek’s mistress had been flaunting.
Earrings in a box | Source: Midjourney
I knocked on her door, and when she opened it, I held up my mother’s will, specifically reading out that the jewelry was mine. I also had a picture of her wearing the set at her wedding.
Then, I showed her the necklace and bracelet I had reclaimed.
“These are part of a set,” I said. “They’re family heirlooms, and I need the earrings back. They were not Derek’s to give.”
Her face paled, and her jaw dropped.
A woman standing in a doorway | Source: Midjourney
“Rachel… I had no idea,” she stammered. “I thought it was a gift from Derek. I didn’t know that it was yours! I had no idea that it was your… mother’s.”
She looked down, something shifting in her expression. Disappointment. Then realization.
“I should have known,” she muttered. “I thought he was being sweet and romantic… but,” she trailed off, shaking her head.
Then, without another word, she ran into her house, returned with the earrings, and placed them in my outstretched hand.
Earrings in a woman’s hand | Source: Midjourney
“Here,” she said. “These don’t belong to me. And honestly, neither does Derek. But he doesn’t belong to you either. Rachel, if it was this easy for him to get with me…”
I knew what she was saying. I understood it loud and clear.
“Hell hath no fury…” I said. “I know. I’ll deal with him.”
“Rachel, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. It was just that Derek gave me the attention that I craved. This divorce… it took a part of me when it ended. I don’t know who I am without my husband. Ex-husband, I mean. Derek swept me off my feet and made me feel normal again. I’m so sorry.”
I looked at her and smiled. I knew what it felt like to have a part of me missing, but mine was due to death and grief, not cheating.
“Thank you for saying that, Mel,” I said, turning away.
An upset woman | Source: Midjourney
Later
I waited until he was back at work and the paperwork was finalized.
And then I took the divorce papers to his office and handed them to him in front of his boss and coworkers.
“You shouldn’t have given away my things, Derek. I mean, really. You gave my mother’s earrings to your mistress?” My voice was louder than I expected. “You stole from me. You betrayed me. And that’s your final mistake in our marriage. This cannot be fixed. I don’t want you.”
A man sitting at his desk | Source: Midjourney
Then, I turned and walked away.
He begged, of course.
But I was done.
He had taken the last piece of my mother I had left. He had lied. He had brushed off my pain. And he had betrayed our family.
And now? That man has nothing. Between alimony and child support, he had little to nothing left to his name.
A woman walking down a hallway | Source: Midjourney
What would you have done?
When Dorothy reads her daughter’s innocent letter to Santa, she’s blindsided by a request for the same heart-shaped earrings her husband apparently gave their nanny. Suspicion spirals into doubt, leading Dorothy to uncover a heartbreaking truth tied to a long-kept secret…
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Rare facts about the astonishing Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith’s life has been quite a rollercoaster. The iconic actress, daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, made her debut on the screen at age 12 – and since then, she’s starred in several big productions.
While Melanie Griffith’s career kept rolling, her private life was very much in focus. She’s been married three times – including to Antonio Banderas – been in rehab, and raised three children.
Melanie Griffith’s children from her first two marriages – Alexander Bauer and Dakota Johnson – had a pretty rough upbringing, especially considering that they had to go through having a mother who was in a terrible place at the time…
Melanie Griffith really had something in the ’80s. She was erotic and sexual in a way that European actresses sometimes are and American actresses almost always are not. And she could act, even though I don’t think Melanie ever truly realized her potential.
I loved her in the movie Working Girl and Paradise!
She was born on August 9, 1957, in New York City to parents Peter Griffith and superstar actress Tippi Hedren, most commonly known for her role in the Hitchcock classic, The Birds.
In hindsight, Griffith’s life has been rather incredible. However, it’s been tragic at the same time. The famous actress, who became known for playing strong-but-sexy characters, has been involved in a car accident, battled with drinking problems, and went through three divorces.
From the start of her life, she was exposed to the pressure of a life in show business. Her mother, Tippi, was, as mentioned, a superstar, and her childhood was extravagant in a very special way – even by Hollywood standards.
When Griffith was seven years old, her mother married agent and producer Noah Marshall. After coming back from a trip to Africa, the couple decided to make a film about lions. An animal trainer gave them a unique idea: to get to know the big cat better, they could welcome one into their home.
So, Melanie Griffith grew up with a pet lion, living with them in the 1970s at their home in Los Angeles, California.
”I grew up with lions, tigers, and two elephants,” Griffith said.
The pet lion, Neil, lived together with the family. Life Magazine documented the extraordinary event, with pictures showing Hedren resting on Neil’s back. The lion even slept under blankets in Melanie Griffith’s bed.
”It was stupid beyond belief,” Griffith later explained.
Even though she wasn’t involved in any incidents with Neil, years later, in another encounter, things didn’t end that well.
Met Don Johnson at 14
Melanie Griffith starred in her first commercial before she turned one. She continued to do commercials and modeling work for some years, and at 12, she made her debut in Extra!, even though she was uncredited.
At the age of 14, she appeared in The Harrad Experiment, and on set, she met her first big love. Griffith met actor Don Johnson on set, and the two fell madly in love. At the time, however, their age difference was somewhat controversial. Don Johnson was 22 at the time – eight years older than Melanie – but their love for one another didn’t stop them.
”I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” Griffith said.
Her mother feared for the two because of her age but eventually gave in. At 15, Melanie Griffith moved in with Don Johnson, and on her 18th birthday, the two got engaged.
”They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic,” her mother, Tippi Hedren, recalled.
Griffith and Johnson tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1976. And, after just six months of marriage, the two split. However, they would rekindle their romance later on, exchanging vows a second time in 1989.
Melanie Griffith lion accident
Melanie Griffith started her promising acting career in the 1970s, starring in films such as Night Moves and Joyride.
In 1981, Melanie Griffith starred in the film Roar. Even though her mother and stepfather raised lions to shoot a film, things turned out ugly on the set of Roar. It was very dangerous being in front of the camera, and Melanie got injured.
She was mauled near the eye, and she feared losing her sight. She needed plastic surgery, while her mother Tippi Hedren contracted gangrene and needed skin grafts, according to a piece in the New Yorker.
As reported by The Guardian, Melanie Griffith said that the lioness ”didn’t mean to hurt me. Just, after seven years growing up with the lions, I forgot you have to be careful. You can never be sure you’re safe, and just a blow can pop your head like a ping pong ball.”
Melanie Griffith came through the scary incident. She continued to star in movies, however, without any live wild animals. She appeared in Body Double, Something Wild, and The Working Girl, among others, with the last one earning her an Academy Award nomination in 1989.
In the 1980s, Melanie Griffith also found love for the second time. She married actor Steven Bauer in 1981, and four years later, they welcomed a son, Alexander Bauer.
Melanie Griffith – daughter Dakota Johnson
Their relationship lasted until 1989 when the couple divorced – with Griffith finding love in Don Johnson again. They divorced again in 1996, after welcoming daughter and now actress Dakota Johnson in 1989.
”You have to understand that we have a tie, and I love him,” Melanie Griffith said and added:
”I will always love [Don Johnson]. But just because you love someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you can live with them.”
Dakota Johnson has become a prominent actress, starring in Fifty Shades of Grey and The Social Network. But because her parents divorced when she was only seven years old, she had a turbulent childhood. She moved around plenty, went to several different schools, and was even homeschooled for a while.
She was often hanging around her parents on film sets from a young age. It made her want to become an actress as well, which she did.
However, the childhood of Dakota Johnson was also filled with much trouble because of her family situation. As a result, she started to go to therapy at age three.
“The whole shebang,” Dakota Johnson told Vogue. “All the help you can get.”
Melanie Griffith – marriage to Antonio Banderas
”I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated, I didn’t have an anchor anywhere, I never learned how to learn the way you’re supposed to as a kid. I thought, ‘Why do I have to go to school on time? What’s the point when you’re living in Budapest for six months while your stepdad films Evita and you go to school in your hotel room?’ I was a disaster, and I thought for so long that there was something wrong with my brain. Now I realize that it just works in a different way.”
Dakota Johnson’s childhood could’ve become the thing that put her on the wrong foot. However, a new person soon entered her life, who changed everything. Just as she mentioned, she needed an anchor. And that was precisely what she got in her stepfather, Antonio Banderas.
In 1996, the same year as Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson split, Banderas also went through a divorce with Ana Leza, whom he’d been married to for nine years. He had long admired Melanie Griffith after seeing her in Gone Girl and on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
“The first time I went to the Academy Awards after we got a nomination for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, we got on the red carpet, and I saw this blonde woman, and I knew her because I saw movies of her, but I didn’t remember [her name] at the time,” Banderas told Vulture.
“So, I said to [director Pedro Almodóvar] ‘Who is she? Who is she? What is her name?’ Pedro said, ‘That’s Melanie Griffith!’ I said, ‘That’s it. Oh my God.’ Six years later, I was married to her.”
Dakota Johnson’s relationship with stepfather Antonio Banderas
The two met while filming the comedy film Two Much in 1995, and they had one actual thing in common. Both were unhappy in their marriages – and Banderas and Griffith recognized each other’s situations.
Antonio Banderas instantly felt an attraction to Melanie Griffith when working together. He thought she was funny, generous, sweet, and beautiful, and after Two Much, the two stayed in touch. In May 1996, the two tied the knot and welcomed daughter Stella later the same year.
Not only did Antonio Banderas become a father to Stella, but the well-respected actor also became a stepfather to Alexander – from her second marriage to Steven Bauer – and Dakota Johnson.
For both Alexander and Dakota, Antonio Banderas became vital, as they finally got a stepfather who was there for her all the time.
In the beginning, however, Banderas explained that it was difficult for the children to accept him because they didn’t know how long he’d stick around.
“I was totally inexperienced. Suddenly I had a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and Stella came along almost immediately,” he told AARP. “I was, ‘Oh, my God!’ But as soon as the kids knew that I was there to stay, they were fine. They needed solid ground in which they could grow. As soon as I realized that, I started establishing my relationship, giving them security, little by little doing the father thing.”
Changed Dakota Johnson’s life
Dakota and Alexander realized that Antonio Banderas was not a temporary man. He took on the role of their stepfather and helped them in any way possible.
For Dakota, this was especially important. Her childhood had been more than stressful and uncertain. In Banderas, she got a stepfather that taught her many things, including “true passion and discipline.”
In 2011, he revealed that the kids call him “Paponio, “which is a mix of “Papa” and “Antonio.”
During an award ceremony in 2019, when Antonio Banderas received the Hollywood Actor Award, Dakota Johnson and Melanie Griffith presented him with the trophy.
”I come from a family of many a marriage, and I got very lucky,” Johnson said in her speech.
”I got a bonus dad who I realized that, over time, is actually one of the most influential people in my whole life. When I was six years old, my mother married a man who brought an unbelievably bright light, a whole new world of creativity and culture, and one remarkably magical little sister into our family.”
”He loved my mother, and my siblings and I so big, and so fiercely and so loud, that it would change all of our lives together,” Dakota added in her speech.
Strong bond to this day
The relationship between Antonio Banderas and his stepchildren continued to be strong even after he and Melanie Griffith divorced in 2014.
Even though Melanie Griffith and Antonio aren’t married anymore, their family bond will forever be strong. As of today, Banderas is in a relationship with Nicole Kimpel. But as soon as he is in Los Angeles, he makes sure to spend time with his stepchildren and ex-wife.
The divorce between the two in 2014 wasn’t dramatic at all, for which his stepchildren were very grateful, Banderas explained.
He added that he will always cherish the time he and Melanie had together – and that he always will love her. And regarding his stepdaughter, Dakota Johnson, he is like her biological, very proud father.
“I remember those years as very effervescent and really beautiful. I am not married with Melanie anymore, but she is my family. She is probably one of my best friends, if not the best friend that I have. My family is there, Dakota [Johnson], Little Estella and Alexander,” Antonio Banderas told Vulture in 2019.
”I met her when she was five years old,” he added. “I followed every single step of it. I’m so proud of her. I saw her the other day in Toronto, and she looks — as I said in the social networks when I put a picture of her and myself, I put there, ‘My radiant Dakota.’”
Melanie Griffith today
At 65, Melanie Griffith is happily single. Her last appearance on the big screen was in 2020, when she had a minor role and co-starred alongside her daughter Dakota in The High Note.
Today, she devotes her time to her family, and according to BestLife, Melanie is currently writing her memoir. And there will probably be a lot to pen down – including her battle against cancer.
The actress was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010, and eight years later, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Doctors had to remove a cancerous cell on her nose, the whole event took a toll on Melanie.
“It’s a scary thing when you’re an actress and you depend on your face for work,” the actress told InStyle and continued:
“But I realize I have to put a Band-Aid on it, and it’s fine. I just look like a dork.”
Luckily, everything went fine in the end – Melanie is now a loud advocate of cancer and also supports the efforts of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
You can say what you want about Melanie’s looks and her turbulent life, but she does seem to have a really sweet soul!
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