MicroHorror

Simon wasn’t her usual type of lover. Simon was black, well toned, mid-thirties and beautiful. But he had one thing in common with her past lovers: he was rich and successful. Ella had met him in a chic bar where she hunted for prospective, wealthy lovers, preferably in their mid-fifties to sixties, married, and who could give her all she demanded.

On a cold February night, after jilting her latest, she sat at the bar drinking champagne when Simon walked in. He too ordered a bottle of champagne and asked if he could join her. They talked about their lives and Ella reeled off her usual lie of a dear departed father who’d left her an estate in Norfolk. Simon said he headed an investment bank and travelled the world.

For over three months, Simon treated Ella like royalty. He often stayed in her apartment overlooking London Bridge. In turn, Ella spent the occasional weekend at Simon’s thatched cottage on a Buckinghamshire estate. In June, while enjoying a late evening drink in her apartment, Simon asked Ella to marry him.

“Oh, my darling!” She put her arms around him. “Of course I’ll marry you.” And with that instant response, Ella realized that, for the very first time, she’d fallen in love.

“This is for you,” he said, giving her a small blue leather box.

Ella opened it and let out a gasp. “It’s beautiful,” she said, gazing in awe at the biggest diamond she’d ever seen set in white gold that nestled on a bed of blue velvet.

Simon took the ring out of its box and put it on her finger. “Promise me, Ella, you must never try to take this off.” At his insistent tone, she tore her gaze from the diamond and looked into Simon’s dark eyes.

“Never,” she promised.

The following morning, Simon left for a two-day business trip to Berne and as he drove off in his Porsche, heading for Heathrow, Ella already missed him.

During the day, Ella admired the diamond that glittered upon her finger, but that evening after an hour’s session on her exercise bike her finger began to swell, and forgetting her promise, she tried to take the ring off but it wouldn’t budge. So she lathered it with soap. Then ran her hand under cold water and saw, to her horror, blood stream into the washbasin. Whimpering, she ran from the bathroom with her hand wrapped in a towel, and called Simon on his mobile.

“Simon, darling,” she said as soon as she heard his voice. “My finger’s swollen and I can’t take the ring off. It’s bleeding badly.”

“Remember your promise, Ella?” he said.

“But I had to, darling,” she replied, panic in her tone at the coldness in his voice.

“It’s a blood diamond,” he told her. “You’ve attained quite a few over the years, but this one is special.”

“Simon!” Her panic rose to fear. “What can I do? Tell me?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “You broke your promise and the last chance to redeem yourself, Ella.”

The line went dead, and the hand that gripped her mobile turned red as blood spurted out in time to the rapid beat of her heart.