My husband gave me a $50,000 jade bracelet for our anniversary and said, “You deserve the best.” That night, a text from an unknown number flashed on my phone: “Throw it away NOW, or you’ll regret it.” I thought it was a sick joke. So I “lent” the bracelet to my jealous sister-in-law instead. By morning, she was in the ICU, my mother-in-law was screaming, and the doctor quietly told me WHOSE BABY she was carrying…

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Chapter 1: The Anniversary Gift

Our villa perched on a cliff in Sausalito, overlooking the misty San Francisco Bay. It was the fifth anniversary of my wedding, Emily’s, and my husband, Richard. Richard was a successful venture capitalist, handsome, and always knew how to make others envious of me.

Dinner was a romantic candlelight affair. Richard poured me an expensive Cabernet Sauvignon, then pulled a long, deep red velvet box from his jacket pocket.

“Happy anniversary, my love,” he said, his voice warm and deep. “You deserve the best.”

I opened the box. Inside was a stunning jadeite bracelet. Its color wasn’t a typical green, but a clear, deep imperial green, like a cat’s eye in the night. It was exquisitely set in 24K gold, engraved with classic motifs.

“Richard… this…” I exclaimed, overwhelmed.

“50,000 dollars,” Richard smiled smugly. “Auctioned from an antique collection in Macau. It’s said to have belonged to a Qing Dynasty nobleman. I want you to wear it tonight, and forever.”

He gently placed the bracelet on my wrist. The first sensation was a chill. A bone-chilling cold traveled from the stone into my bloodstream, making me shiver slightly.

“It’s a little cold,” I forced a smile.

“It will warm up with your warmth,” Richard kissed my hand. “Promise me, never take it off. It’s our love charm.”

That night, while Richard was showering, my phone, which was on the vanity table, suddenly lit up.

A message from an unknown number.

I opened it out of curiosity. The short, all-caps message carried a terrifying urgency:

“THROW IT AWAY NOW. OR YOU’LL REGRET IT. DON’T LET IT TOUCH YOUR SKIN.”

I frowned. Who would send such a bizarre message? I looked down at the jade bracelet on my wrist. It still radiated its mesmerizing beauty. I immediately thought of someone jealous of me. Maybe an ex-girlfriend of Richard’s? Or a rival?

“A cruel joke,” I muttered, intending to delete the message. But then, the doorbell rang.

Chapter 2: The Jealousy of My Sister-in-Law

I went to open the door. It was Jessica and Richard’s brother, Tom. They lived a few miles away. Jessica was a woman who always coveted my life. She was always comparing her handbags, shoes, and even her family happiness to mine.

“Oh, sorry to be late,” Jessica said, her eyes scanning the luxurious living room, her voice artificially sweet. “Tom left his files at Richard’s yesterday. We stopped by to pick them up and celebrate your anniversary.”

Richard came downstairs, towel-wrapped around his waist, looking as glamorous as a model. Jessica stared at him for a second longer than necessary before turning to me.

And then, her gaze settled on my wrist.

“Oh my God!” Jessica exclaimed, lunging forward to grab my hand. “What is this? Imperial jade? Did Richard give it to you?”

“Yes,” I replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable with her touch. “An anniversary gift.”

“It must be worth a fortune,” Jessica stroked the bracelet, her eyes revealing an undisguised longing. “Tom has never given me anything over $500. You’re so lucky, Emily. So incredibly lucky.”

She sighed, letting go of my hand, her face drooping like a child whose candy had been stolen. “I have a fundraising party at the women’s association tonight. I wish I had a piece of jewelry like this to wear. Those women there would be absolutely thrilled.”

A thought flashed through my mind. The message from earlier still bothered me. Throw it away… Don’t let it touch my skin…

I looked at Jessica. Her jealousy, her arrogance… If it was a cruel joke, why not let her experience it? Besides, I wanted to take it off for a moment to see if there was anything unusual.

“Do you like it?” I asked, taking the bracelet off.

“Like it? I’m absolutely smitten with it!”

“Then borrow it for tonight,” I smiled, handing her the bracelet. “Consider it a lucky charm. I’ll be home all night anyway.”

Richard, who was pouring drinks at the bar, spun around. “Emily, what are you doing? That’s my gift to you!”

His voice sounded… panicked? No, probably angry.

“Come on, honey,” I reassured him. “Just one night. Jessica is my sister-in-law. I don’t want to upset her.”

Jessica quickly snatched the bracelet and put it on. “Thank you, Emily! You’re the best! Richard, don’t be stingy, I’ll return it tomorrow.”

She twirled the bracelet on her wrist, admiring it under the lights. It seemed to glow with an eerie blue against her pale skin.

“Let’s go, Tom, we’re going to be late for the party,” Jessica pulled her husband’s hand, happily heading home as if she’d struck gold.

Richard stood there, watching Jessica, his grip on the wine glass so tight his knuckles turned white.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Richard said, his voice cold. “I just don’t like you belittling my gift.”

That night, Richard slept with his back to me. He tossed and turned all night. And I, for some reason, felt relieved when I took off the bracelet, as if an invisible burden had been lifted.

Chapter 3: The Dawn Call

5 a.m.

The landline phone rang.

A deafening noise shattered the silence of the house.

I picked up the phone. My mother-in-law, Margaret’s, shrieked.

“Emily! Richard! Come to the hospital immediately! Jessica… she’s dying!”

We rushed to Stanford Hospital. The ICU hallway was chaotic. Tom sat slumped against the wall, sobbing uncontrollably. Margaret paced back and forth, her hands clasped in prayer.

“What happened?” Richard asked, his face pale, sweat pouring down him.

“Last night… after the party,” Tom sobbed. “She complained of dizziness and nausea. We thought it was food poisoning. But then she started convulsing. She foamed at the mouth… Blood was coming from her nose and ears…”

Tom looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot.

“The doctor said she was poisoned. A potent neurotoxin that seeped through her skin.”

A chill ran down my spine. Seeped through her skin.

I looked down at my wrist, where the jade bracelet had rested last night.

“The bracelet…” I whispered.

“Which bracelet?” Margaret snapped. “At this hour, you’re still worrying about jewelry?”

Just then, the emergency room door opened. A doctor emerged, his face grim. He looked around our family.

“Who is the family of patient Jessica Vance?”

“It’s me, I’m her husband,” Tom stood up.

“We’re so sorry,” the doctor shook his head. “The poison destroyed her central nervous system and caused multiple organ failure. We couldn’t save her. She passed away at 5:15 a.m.”

Margaret’s heart-wrenching cries rang out. Tom collapsed to the floor.

But the doctor didn’t finish. He gestured for Richard and me to step aside. He seemed to recognize Richard – the man who often donated to this hospital.

“Mr. Vance, Mrs. Vance,” the doctor whispered. “The police are on their way. This wasn’t a natural death. We found traces of high concentrations of dimethylmercury (organic mercury) on the patient’s wrist, right where she wore the jade bracelet.”

My legs went weak. Dimethylmercury. One of the world’s most potent nerve agents. Just a few drops absorbed through rubber gloves are enough to be fatal, let alone direct contact with the skin for hours.

That bracelet… it was poisoned.

Richard leaned against the wall, his face pale. He wasn’t crying. He was trembling.

“And there’s one more thing,” the doctor lowered his voice even further, his eyes filled with concern as he looked toward Tom, who was wailing in the distance. “We had to do a full blood test for antitoxin. The results showed the patient was eight weeks pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” I exclaimed. “Tom and Jessica have been trying to have a child for three years without success. Is this a double tragedy?”

“The problem is,” the doctor looked Richard straight in the eye. “During the emergency genetic screening to see if the fetus could be saved (even if hopeless), we discovered a rare genetic match.”

The doctor took a test result from his file.

“Mr. Richard, I know you had a blood sample stored here during your general health checkup last month. The DNA match between the fetus and you is 99.9%.”

Time seemed to stop. The space around me warped.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice trembling.

The doctor looked at me sympathetically.

“I mean, the baby Jessica is carrying… is Richard’s child, her husband’s.”

Chapter 4: The Naked Truth

I turned to look at Richard.

He didn’t deny it. He slid down the hospital wall, clutching his head, groaning like a wounded animal.

All the disjointed pieces suddenly fit together brutally.

Richard and Jessica. Brother-in-law and sister-in-law. They had been having an affair.

The baby in Jessica’s womb was Richard’s.

And the bracelet…

“You…” I stammered, recoiling. “You were going to kill me.”

Richard looked up, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

“No! It wasn’t like that!” he whispered, shouting. “I was going to kill her! I was going to kill Jessica!”

“What?”

“She’s crazy, Emily!” Richard grabbed my hand, pleading. “She’s pregnant. She’s forcing me to divorce you. She’s threatening to tell you and Tom everything if I don’t leave you. I love you, Emily! I only made a mistake once!”

I disgustedly pulled my hand away.

“You were planning to kill your lover and your unborn child?”

“I had no other choice!” Richard sobbed. “I bought that bracelet from the black market, poisoned the lining inside. I intended… I intended to give it to her as a ‘farewell’ gift to silence her. I intended to find a way to give it to her today.”

He paused, gasping for breath.

“But last night… when you opened the gift… I got the box wrong. I had two identical boxes. One clean bracelet for you, and the poisoned one for her. I gave you the wrong one!”

I remembered the strange message. THROW IT AWAY…

“That message…” I whispered.

“It was me!” Richard admitted. “When I realized I’d given it to you by mistake, I went into the bathroom and texted you using a burner phone. I didn’t dare tell you directly because I was afraid you’d suspect why I gave it to you and then want to throw it away. I thought you’d be scared and take it off.”

“But you gave it to Jessica,” I said, feeling the bitter irony of fate.

“Right! Why did you give it to her?”

“Her?” Richard yelled, blaming me. “If you hadn’t given it to her, she wouldn’t have died in front of everyone like this! The police will investigate the source of the poison! You’re finished!”

I looked at the man in front of me. An adulterer, a murderer, and a coward.

He had intended to kill his mistress to protect his comfortable life with me. But because of his mistake, and my “generosity” (or unconscious revenge), he killed the woman who was pregnant with his child, right before his eyes, with the very weapon he had created.

“Richard,” I said, backing away from him, pulling out my phone. “You’re not just finished.” “He’ll rot in prison.”

“What are you doing?”

“I just recorded it all,” I held up my phone. “And the police are coming.”

From the end of the hallway, two police officers, along with Tom and Margaret, were approaching. They didn’t know the truth about the baby yet, but they would soon.

Richard looked at me, then at the police. He stood up, intending to run away. But he had nowhere to go.

He collapsed, his cries mingling with Margaret’s agonizing screams as she realized her son was a murderer, and her unborn grandchild was the result of a disgusting incestuous affair.

Chapter 4: The Ghost of the Jade

Three months later.

I stood before the sea, the Sausalito wind still as cold as ever.

Richard had been sentenced to life imprisonment. The case had shocked the entire United States. Tom had sold his house and moved elsewhere, unable to bear the immense pain.

I looked at the red velvet box on My hand. Inside was the “clean” jade bracelet the police found in Richard’s safe – the real gift he intended to give me (or perhaps a backup).

It was beautiful. But now, looking at that deep blue, I only saw the color of poison, the color of betrayal.

I swung my arm, throwing the box away. It fell into the swirling waters of San Francisco Bay, sinking to the bottom.

I had lost a husband, a family. But I had saved my life thanks to a cowardly text message and the greed of another woman.

Fate had a way of playing tricks. Jessica had always wanted what I had. And in the end, she got it all: my bracelet, my husband, and the death destined for her – given to her by the very man she loved.

I turned my back and walked away. My life begins anew today. And I promised myself I would never wear anything that could bind me again.