Emerald earrings

The emerald earrings were a cherished family heirloom of Audrey Decker, passed down from her mother. Theo remembered them vividly: the blue-green transparency of the stones and their wicked gleam were as much a part of her as the color of her eyes. She wore them for almost every cocktail party or dress-up occasion.

Theft and Disappearance

About two weeks before Larry Decker vanished, the earrings disappeared from the dish on Audrey's bedside table. When Audrey confronted him, Larry mocked her, suggesting the housekeeper Cinzia had taken them. But Audrey, ash-white with anger, pointed out that Cinzia hadn't been in to work since the night she'd taken the earrings off. After Larry left, it turned out that other items—cash and antique coins belonging to her father—had vanished as well. Audrey changed the locks and warned the doormen not to let him in.

Recovery in Las Vegas

Years later, after Theo's father died in a car crash, Theo and Boris Pavlikovsky rifled through Xandra's bedroom while she was unconscious from pills and grief. In a fake Coke can that served as Xandra's tip jar, amidst cash and casino chips, Theo's eyes went straight to the diamond-and-emerald earrings. He picked one up between thumb and forefinger, recognizing them instantly. Boris, more interested in the cocaine he'd found, told Theo he could get a couple of thousand dollars for them. Theo also found his mother's junior-high charm bracelet, ajingle with horseshoes and ballet slippers.

Later Significance

Years later, when Theo became engaged to Kitsey Barbour, he gave her the earrings as a gift. At a lunch at Fred's, Kitsey held them up to the light and admired them, but expressed doubt about whether they would be "quite right" for the wedding day, saying emeralds weren't really her stone and might seem "a bit hard" with her skin. Theo was annoyed but told her to wear what she wanted. At their engagement party, Kitsey wore the earrings, and Theo was moved by the sight, even though he knew they didn't suit her. He reached out and touched them, and then her cheek, in a moment of genuine affection.