The Necklace

A fine silver chain, with a circlet of diamonds. More of a pendant, really. Lydia saw it in one of the glossy magazines left in the reception of the TV channel where they were waiting to pitch. She would never read one of those normally – never had the time. Lydia never had time for anything, dashing from meeting to meeting, phone glued to her ear, gabbling away in taxis, tapping out e-mails with one hand while she ate a sandwich with the other. This job didn’t even give her time to eat – she’d lost a stone in the six months she’d been working there. A stone in scurrying and stress.

But it was more money than she or Daniel had ever made. Money to do up the house, go on nice holidays, send Annabel to that prep school with the organic farm and 200-seat theatre. Money for lovely clothes and nice jewellery.

When she went to bed, she left the necklace on, tracing the