The following week, Bianca suggested a new game to the children:
“Everyone, bring your mom’s most precious accessory tomorrow, and we’ll show them off to each other!”
Lila immediately shook her head. “I don’t want to do that.”
Bianca’s response was swift and manipulative. “Then Lila’s not part of our group anymore. We won’t play with you.”
Playground politics could be cruel, Lila thought, but she held her ground.
The next day, most of the children brought little trinkets—simple necklaces or rings their mothers had handed them with a smile, saying, “This is my most precious one.”
None of them knew their mothers had only chosen things they could part with easily.
But Tracy, wanting to impress her friend, took something truly precious without telling Naosa.
Bianca examined Tracy’s prize with a calculating look—a pair of delicate silver earrings with tiny pearls.
“I’ll ask my mom about these,” Bianca said, pocketing the earrings.
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At pick-up time, Bianca showed the tiny earrings to Tiffany, who had arrived early as usual.
“This is Tracy’s mom’s most precious thing,” Bianca announced.
Tiffany glanced dismissively at the delicate silver-and-pearl earrings.
“They’re not even real jewelry—it’s cheap stuff.”
She handed them back to Bianca with contempt.
Bianca returned to Tracy with a cruel smile.
“My mommy says this isn’t any good. Let’s throw it away!”
Before Tracy could even react, Bianca dropped the earrings into an empty plastic bottle and hurled it over the playground fence into the river beyond.
Tracy watched in silent horror. She remembered how her mother always wore those earrings, saying they were more precious than anything she owned.
Maybe Mommy won’t notice, she told herself in panic. Maybe she just won’t notice.
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When Alex brought the children home that afternoon, they found Naosa frantically searching through the house. She had been looking all day and hadn’t even prepared dinner—something that never happened.
Naosa kept apologizing to Alex, and they decided to eat out that evening.
“By the way, what is it you’ve been looking for?” Alex asked casually as they got ready to leave.
“My favorite earrings—the silver ones I always wear,” Naosa said, her voice tight with distress. “I’ve searched everywhere, but they’re nowhere to be found. They should have been in my jewelry box where I always keep them. Only those are missing.”
She looked close to tears.
Alex laughed it off. “They’ll turn up somewhere. They always do.”
If only he knew how wrong he was…
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In the car, when he asked the children where they wanted to eat, they immediately cried, “Burgers!”
Alex smiled. “Dad and Mom have a favorite burger place—”
“I don’t want to go there,” Naosa said quickly.
Tracy immediately protested, “If it’s Daddy’s favorite, then I definitely want to go there!”
The tension was palpable. Naosa’s voice was strained as she said, “You and Dad go ahead. I’m not hungry anyway—I’ll just go back home.”
Trying to keep the peace, Alex lied smoothly. “Oh, that place is closed today anyway. Sorry, sweetheart.”
But the smile had completely vanished from Naosa’s face, and Travis noticed every small change in his mother’s demeanor. Throughout dinner, he tried desperately to cheer her up, acting extra joyful and engaging. Naosa found some comfort in Travis and Aaron’s obvious affection.
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Even after returning home, Naosa continued searching for the earrings. Her tears wouldn’t stop flowing.
Alex, attempting to comfort her, said, “If you loved them so much, let’s go to the jewelry store this weekend. I’ll buy you something even better—something more expensive.”
But his words only made things worse. Naosa broke down completely.
“Those were one of a kind,” she sobbed. “They were my most precious possession—more precious than anything expensive you could ever buy. They can’t be replaced. I don’t want anything else.”
He doesn’t understand, she thought through her tears. He’ll never understand.
From the hallway, Tracy watched her mother’s breakdown, trembling with guilt.
Travis approached his sister quietly. “Tracy, do you know anything about Mom’s special earrings?”
Tracy shook her head quickly and fled to her bedroom.
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The next day, after everyone had left for work and school, Jake the gardener came to tend the grounds. Naosa sat at her piano, but her mind kept returning to the missing earrings.
Suddenly, a terrible thought struck her. She could see it clearly in her mind’s eye: the playground at school, the fence, and the river beyond.
When Jake was about to leave, she asked, “Could you drive me to the children’s school, please?”
Upon arriving, she thanked Jake and headed straight for the playground. Travis spotted her immediately and ran over, surprised.
“Mommy! What are you doing here?”
Naosa knelt down to the children’s level, her voice gentle but urgent. “It seems I’ve lost something very important to me. Tracy, sweetheart, do you know anything about it?”
Tracy shook her head, but her face had gone pale.
Lila, ever honest, spoke up: “Tracy, didn’t you bring your mom’s precious thing for that game?”
When Marianne approached, having noticed the commotion, Naosa asked Lila to explain what she knew. Lila recounted Bianca’s game proposal but said she didn’t know what had happened afterward.
Then Bianca, with shocking casualness, blurted out, “Oh, my mom said those earrings weren’t any good, so I threw it in the river!”
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Naosa collapsed to her knees as if she’d been struck.
Tracy, finally breaking down, confessed through her tears: “Bianca put it in a plastic bottle and threw it over the fence into the river!”
Without hesitation, Naosa stood up and handed Aaron to Marianne.
“Please take care of Aaron,” she said—and then she ran for the fence.
“Nao, wait!” Marianne called, but Naosa was already climbing over, driven by desperate determination.
She searched frantically along the riverbank, finding a small dam where debris had collected. Beyond it, the current ran fast and dangerous. Several plastic bottles bobbed in the slower water near the dam.
She didn’t hesitate. She waded in.
“Where is it? Where?” she gasped, grabbing bottle after bottle, frantically checking inside each one.
Finally, she found it—the tiny earrings were still there in one of the bottles.
But the icy water was sapping her strength rapidly. Her body was giving out, and she could barely keep her head above water as the current threatened to sweep her toward the rapids.
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She had just managed to struggle back to the bank when she heard Alex’s voice.
He was there, and he was furious.
“What were you thinking?” he shouted. “You’re a mother! You can’t risk your life over something so small!”
Trivial. The word cut through her like a knife.
Naosa couldn’t speak. She could only stand there, dripping and shaking, tears running down her face as she clutched the tiny earrings—her “trivial” treasure that meant nothing to anyone else. Not even to Alex.
They drove home in complete silence. Travis and Aaron kept asking anxiously, “Mommy, are you okay?” She managed faint nods and forced smiles, but inside, she was falling apart.
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Back home, Naosa showered to warm up, then mechanically went through the motions of preparing dinner and caring for her family. After a silent meal and putting the children to bed, Alex said he wanted to talk.
“I need some time to think,” Naosa said quietly, and retreated to another room.
The next morning, Alex woke up alone in their bedroom. It was nearly noon—something that never happened. He frantically searched the house, but Naosa was nowhere to be found. The children were still sleeping—it was Saturday.
On the kitchen table, he found a note written in Naosa’s careful handwriting:
Please take care of the children.
I’ve arranged for a nanny to start Monday.
Alex searched the entire house again, calling her name, but Naosa was truly gone.
For the first time in years, Alex had no idea what to do.
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