She Has Worn Her Mother’s Necklace For 25 Years, Then Discovers What’s Hidden Inside It

At first, Anna didn't appreciate the necklace she inherited from her mother. The two of them never had a strong relationship and Anna kept it away in a drawer for a quarter-century. However, everything changed when the necklace broke one day and revealed a secret inside that made her question her assumptions about her mother. What was this hidden surprise? And more importantly, how would it affect her life from now on? Waking up on the ground Shutterstock Anna was disoriented and on the ground. Still a little dazed and confused as to what just happened, Anna tried to get up from the pavement. Multiple people quickly rushed to her aid and helped her. “What just happened?” Anna wondered. She looked behind her and quickly put everything together... A car had stopped right behind her. She must have swerved on her bike to avoid it and fell as a result. Luckily, she doesn’t appear to have broken anything. At her age, a fall like that could really result in some nasty injuries. Then, Anna looked down on the ground to her shock, she saw something else that did break… Fallen off her bike Shutterstock On the ground was his mother’s old necklace. The big pendant is shattered. But then she noticed something among the pieces on the ground. Did her mother put something in the necklace for her? But why? The shattered necklace Shutterstock Anna was a 68-year-old woman who had recently retired just like her husband, Thomas. The kids had long since moved out of the house and Anna was preparing for a relaxed and happy rest of her life. While this might sound like the most ordinary story for an ordinary woman, nothing has been ordinary about Anna’s life, nor will it ever be... Meet Anna Shutterstock You see, a large part of Anna’s life had been very difficult by anyone’s usual standards. Particularly her childhood, which had a heavy focus on surviving as opposed to thriving, and Anna would carry the memories and mental scars from that time for years after she had left it all behind her. A difficult childhood Shutterstock Anna was born into a poor family in a city where the quality of life was very dependent on one's financial situation. With her parents barely managing to make ends meet, even before she was born, the addition to the family did not help the situation and had even more negative consequences besides a lack of money. A poor family Shutterstock The birth of Anna had seemed to change the dynamic of the once so loving relationship between the couple. While Anna’s father, John, seemed dead set on giving his daughter the best life possible by working his ass off and spending all his free time with her, Anna’s mother, Dorothy, seemed to take a different approach to parenting… Her parent's relationship changed Shutterstock That is, if you can even call her actions parenting. After being seemingly very excited to become a parent, she quickly lost all interest in her child after the birth. After a while, she didn’t even look in Anna’s direction anymore or acknowledge her existence. But that was not the only thing she lost interest in… Her mother made no effort Shutterstock With Dorothy not spending time with her daughter whatsoever, one would expect that she would have a lot of time left to work and give herself and the family a more stable life. But nothing could be further from the truth as she spent most days in the house doing nothing but smoking cigarettes like a chimney. She did nothing all day Shutterstock This went on for a couple of years. John loathed his wife's behavior but felt like there was nothing he could do. He still loved her very much and didn’t want to lose her. He hoped it was just a temporary thing and it would pass. But it would quickly become apparent that this was not the case and it made John regret not stepping in sooner… John was afraid to comment Shutterstock When he woke up one morning, John noticed that Dorothy was not in her bed. This was unusual as she would normally sleep in. He started to look around the house, waking Anna up in the process. Nothing in the house seemed to be out of place but Dorothy was nowhere to be found… Dorothy suddenly left one night Shutterstock After having searched the house, John and Anna (who was around 8 at this time) started going around the neighborhood asking if anyone had seen Dorothy leave that night. They got lucky with a neighbor who lived across the street from them and had gotten home from a late shift around 1:00AM. A neighbor saw something Shutterstock The neighbor told them that around 1:30, he had seen Dorothy leave the house, with no belongings or anything, and wait for a while alongside the street. After about five or ten minutes, a luxury car pulled up in front of her. The driver stepped out and opened the car door for Dorothy and bowed when she entered the vehicle. After this, they sped away... Picked up in a luxury car Shutterstock Unfortunately, the neighbor didn’t think to get the plate of the car and didn’t know what the exact model was. This was not enough information for the police to start an investigation and thus Anna and John were left completely in the dark for weeks. Until one morning a letter showed up in their mailbox that seemingly explained what happened… Getting a letter Shutterstock The letter was very short and to the point. It was from Dorothy. In it, she explained that she had left the family because she had fallen in love with another man. Someone a lot more well-off than John. She was going to live the life she deserved and wanted nothing to do with the family anymore… She had run off with another man Shutterstock After recovering from the first shock that this message had caused, John started to notice that something was seemingly off with the letter. It was handwritten, but it was not Dorothy’s own handwriting. It also had words he had never heard his wife use before. With these suspicions, John went to the police again, but didn’t get the answers he was hoping for… Something was off with the letter Shutterstock The police informed him that they saw this letter as a valid explanation of why his wife left because it made sense alongside the neighbors story of her being picked up in a luxury car. The police told John that they would have to close the investigation, which in truth had never even really started. John would be on his own if he wanted to continue searching. Police closed the case Shutterstock Not a single fiber in John’s body wanted to give up the search for his wife and the search for answers, but he was now left with an impossible dilemma. He would need to dedicate a large amount of time to the search now that nobody was going to help him and that was time that he simply did not have… John had a big decision to make Shutterstock John’s work was not going to give them more days off to help him and if he didn’t return soon, they would find somebody else to do the job. With an 8-year-old daughter at home that he needed to take care of, he could simply not lose his job. Considering every aspect of the situation, John felt like he was left without a choice… He had to get back to work Shutterstock John gave up the search for his wife and tried to convince himself that the letter was true and she had decided to leave him. He put his head down and went back to work in order to provide for himself and Anna, who had to quickly learn how to take care of herself now that there was no mother around the house anymore. He gave up the search Shutterstock This situation remained unchanged for a couple of years and both father and daughter were finding their groove within it more and more. In that time, they got no more information about Dorothy and were slowly starting to forget about her. And with her fading from John’s mind, another woman eagerly made use of this opportunity… Getting used to the situation Shutterstock John got into a new relationship with a beautiful young woman and they seemed to fall head over heels in love with each other. It didn’t take long for her and her son to move in with John and Anna. John expected this to be the start of a great new chapter in his life. But he would turn out to be very wrong about this… A new relationship Shutterstock While John and his new girlfriend clicked so well, this was not the case for Anna. She had a frigid relationship with her new step-mother. It was very obvious that the woman only had eyes for her own son and she saw Anna as an obstacle to her perfect life with John. She soon began to act on those feelings. Anna hated her step-mother Shutterstock With John being away from work, the 15-year-old Anna was often left alone with her new step-mother and an altercation was never far away. Anna often didn't get any food from her, would get yelled at, and on occasion, her stepmother even got physical with her. It was a terrible time for poor Anna… Anna was mistreated by her Shutterstock She considered telling her father many times, but she knew how happy he was with this new relationship and didn’t want to ruin it for him. Anna eventually decided that her leaving the house was the best option. But how? She didn’t even have enough money for food. But then one day, an unexpected opportunity presented itself to her... Not wanting to tell her father Shutterstock One day, the doorbell rang in the middle of the day when Anna was home alone. Her father was at work and her step-mother was getting groceries with her son. Anna opened the door and was presented with a small package. It had no return address on it and the delivery driver also had no idea where it came from. Anna quickly opened it. An unexpected package Shutterstock The package contained three items: a letter addressed to Anna, a beautiful, expensive-looking necklace fully loaded with diamonds, and a framed photo of someone who Anna kind of recognized as her mother, wearing the very same necklace as in the package. Still confused, Anna opened the letter and started reading... A necklace, picture, and letter Shutterstock The letter was very short and factual. It stated that Dorothy had passed away 2 months ago, and that the funeral had already taken place, though it didn’t state where the body was buried. The letter ended by explaining that the items in the box were what Dorothy had left Anna in her will. Even on the letter itself, there was also no mention of who sent it and from where… Dorothy had passed away Shutterstock Anna was very much taken aback by this letter. Sure, she had not seen or heard from her mother in almost 7 years, but because of the horrible situation with her stepmother, she still considered Dorothy her real mother and felt very sad because of her passing. But this sadness quickly made room for a very opportunistic idea… Anna was saddened by this Shutterstock Anna was still determined to get out of the house as quickly as possible, but her biggest issue with this was that she had no money. So she thought that if this necklace was half as valuable as it looked, that maybe she could sell it and get enough money from it to finance her new life. But she did have her reservations with this plan… Selling the necklace? Shutterstock This necklace, alongside the framed photo, was the only thing she had left of her mother. And, in all likeliness, all she would ever have. Was getting out of the house now worth more to her than the memory of her mother? Still unsure, she decided that there was no harm in getting it appraised first, to see if there even was a decision to be made. The last memory of her mother Shutterstock Anna took the necklace to the local jewelry store to get an idea of how much it was worth. The employee took the necklace in the back to look at it and was away for a very long time. It took almost an hour before he was able to get back to Anna. But he came to a very odd conclusion about the necklace… Getting it appraised Shutterstock The jeweler told Anna that the whole necklace was fake. A good fake, but a fake nonetheless. It was almost exclusively made of cheap metals and glass. Now, this in itself was not that weird. He had fake jewelry come into the store almost daily. That there was something about this fake that really stood out to him… Fake! Shutterstock And that was that not the entire necklace was fake. The small stone above the big, glass pendant was actually a real diamond and a very valuable one at that. The jeweler just could not understand why someone would put a diamond-like that on a fake necklace. The jeweler thought he had given Anna bad news, so he was surprised to see her reaction. One real diamond Shutterstock Anna was very happy with this news because, in her mind, it meant that she could have the best of both worlds. She could sell the one valuable stone to the jeweler to fund her moving out of the house and she could keep the rest of the necklace as a reminder of her mother. And so it happened… Selling the diamond Shutterstock The jeweler was able to pay a decent price for the stone, but not quite enough for Anna to move out. She would have to save up some more money and upon hearing her story, the jeweler actually offered Anna a job helping out around the store. Everything seemed to finally go right for Anna, but this fortune wasn’t long-lived… Working at the jewelry store Shutterstock Anna’s home situation was not improving whatsoever. In fact, it was getting worse. The arguments with her stepmother only seemed to be happening more frequently as time went on, and they were growing more violent. One night, it just became too much for Anna, especially because it wasn’t just her stepmother hurting Anna anymore... A bad altercation at home Shutterstock Her stepmother mostly only turned against Anna when her father, John, was not present, but this time she started yelling at and hitting Anna with John sitting in the same room. Anna expected her father to come to her aid, but he did nothing about it. He just let it happen and this broke Anna… Her father didn't help Shutterstock She packed her bags that evening and snuck out of the house without telling anybody that very night. She had no place to go to and decided to sleep in the park. The next day she quit her job at the jewelry store and hopped on a bus that would take her as far away as possible. Anna ran away Shutterstock After a couple of days of travel, Anna was almost on the other side of the county and was ready to start a new life. She quickly found a job as a waitress and had enough saved up to rent a small apartment for herself. But Anna would not end up living alone for a long time… The other side of the country Shutterstock At the restaurant she worked, there was a young chef who Anna seemed to hit it off with from the very moment the two of them met. Anna was very reserved at first, as it was obvious that she was still scarred from the last couple of years she had lived through. But the young chef, Thomas, kept trying and eventually Anna was comfortable around him. Meeting somebody Shutterstock The new couple moved in together after only a couple of months. They knew they were destined to spend eternity together. The more the pair built their life together, the more Anna seemed to forget about what all she had left behind. She forgot about her cowardly father, her mean stepmother, and even her absent real mother. But as it would turn out, she couldn’t run from her past forever… Forgetting about her past Shutterstock Anna had stored everything that reminded her about her childhood in a box, deeply hidden away in the basement. It had been there for so long that Anna had almost completely forgotten about it. So when the pair and their newly born children were moving to a bigger house, finding the box again came as a shock to Anna… A box with memories stored away Shutterstock Anna was 43 at this time and it had been almost 27 years since she left everything behind. She felt strong enough to open this box again and let some of the memories come back to her. When opening the lid, the first thing she noticed was the big fake necklace her mother had left her. One of the only items with a good memory attached to it. Finding it after 27 years Shutterstock This necklace was the main reason she was able to leave everything behind at the time and she suddenly felt an attachment to it she never experienced before. She put it on and from that moment on it became an item she rarely took off. It reminded her of what she had overcome and honored her mother’s memory. But wearing it so much would come with its risks… Started wearing the necklace Shutterstock On one fateful day, Anna was cycling home after getting some groceries. A lot of time had passed since she had found her mother’s old necklace. Almost 25 years, in fact. By this time, her kids had moved out and she and her husband, Thomas, had retired. Life was good but everything would change very soon for Anna... Cycling home Shutterstock Suddenly, a car came out of nowhere. The driver had seemingly lost control of the wheel and was coming right for Anna. She managed to swerve out of the way at the last second but did lose her balance in the process. Anna hit the ground hard and lost consciousness for a second. She was awoken by the people helping her get up. Taking a fall Shutterstock Luckily, Anna herself had no serious injuries and got off with only a few bruises and scratches. But her mother's old necklace, which she had been wearing at the time, was in pieces on the ground below her. Anna was on the verge of crying, but then she noticed something between the pieces of the big pendant… Her necklace broke Shutterstock She reached for it and picked up a small key. Anna’s first thought was if this key may have already been on the ground and her necklace just happened to fall on top of it. But this thought was quickly cast aside when Anna read what was written on the side of the key and her whole world stopped for a second... Finding a small key Shutterstock There was a sticker with her name written on it stuck to the key. So many questions popped into Anna’s head. How did this key get into the pendant? Why did her mother want her to have it? Why did it have to be hidden like this? Anna’s mind was going 100 miles an hour trying to figure out what to do next… Her name was on the key Shutterstock On her way home, there was only one thing she could think of that might give her more answers. The only other item alongside the necklace that she had inherited from her mother. The framed picture. It was still in the same box she had been storing all her other memories and items of her youth in. The framed picture Shutterstock Anna opened the box when she got home and quickly found the picture inside of it. After not finding anything helpful in the picture or the frame, she decided to take the whole thing apart. It was a desperate attempt at finding anything that could give her some answers and it would turn out to not be in vain… Breaking the frame open Shutterstock Written on the back of the picture is a series of numbers. Anna didn’t recognize what these could be and decided to take the picture upstairs and ask her husband. She first explained the whole situation to him and his jaw dropped. Anna had never really been open to him about her youth, so a lot of this information came as a shock. Numbers are written on the back Shutterstock Anna gave Thomas a little while to process everything and Thomas made sure that Anna had no real injuries from her fall that she might not have noticed because of the adrenaline. Then Thomas took a look at the picture and the numbers on the back. But unlike Anna, he immediately recognized what the numbers were… Thomas knew what they were Shutterstock The numbers were coordinates! The couple quickly turned on the computer to find out where the coordinates would lead to. Anna had already made her mind up that no matter where the coordinates would point her to, she would go there as soon as possible. But luckily, she would not have to go far... Coordinates Shutterstock To their surprise, the coordinates appeared to be pointing to a nearby city. The city Anna and Thomas used to live before they moved. This was also the city they lived when Anna received the package from her mother with the necklace and picture. Her mother seemed to have planned this to the finest detail… The city they moved from Shutterstock After getting the exact coordinates entered into Google Maps, it became clear that the location her mother was trying to get Anna to was an old local bank. Anna and Thomas quickly packed an overnight bag just in case, got into the car, and rushed to get to the bank as quickly as possible. A local bank Shutterstock The couple arrived just 20 minutes before closing time and Anna sprinted out of the car while Thomas was still looking for a parking spot. She could not wait any longer. There was nobody in the lobby of the building when she entered except for a concierge and one employee behind the counter twiddling his thumbs. Almost closing time Shutterstock Anna approached the employee and almost slammed the key on the table, startling the distracted employee. Anna asked him if this key was issued by them and if it could open maybe a safe or something here. The employee didn’t immediately recognize the key, but then Anna told him her name… Telling her name to the employee Shutterstock He typed it into the computer and quickly got a result back. There was a safe reserved and prepaid for a time span of 50 years with them, under Anna’s name. And the instructions were that anybody with the key was to be allowed to take out its contents. The employee took the key from Anna to inspect it. A safe in Anna's name Shutterstock He removed the sticker that had Anna’s name written on it, revealing the number under it. It matched with the number that was linked to the entry that he had found in his database. Anna's heart started to beat faster as the employee stood up from his desk. This was also the moment Thomas finally walked into the building. The matching number Shutterstock The employee escorted the pair to a room where an assortment of small safes was located. He pointed to which safe the key was supposed to work on, checked if it still worked after all these years, and then left the room to give them some privacy. Anna’s heart was now almost beating out of her chest… Nerves Shutterstock For years she had barely thought about her mother and had assumed that she had not really ever cared about her. But she knew that whatever was behind the door of this safe could change that perspective forever. With shaky hands and pounding heart, Anna turned the key and opened the safe… Opening the safe Shutterstock Inside the safe, which was one of the biggest in the room, were a couple of smaller cardboard boxes bound together and a letter taped on top. This could be what Anna had been looking for. An explanation for every question that she had never gotten an answer to. Anna opened the letter and started reading… Cardboard boxes and a letter Shutterstock The letter was long, but every word in it was important to Anna. The letter started with an apology from her mother for not being there when she was growing up and leaving in the manner in which she did. She had always felt guilty for what she had put her through but had felt she had no other choice. The letter explained everything Shutterstock The day Anna was born had been a joying occasion for her, but it would turn out to be the beginning of a very dark chapter in her life. She was overwhelmed by the pressure of having to raise a child and fell into depression because of it and as a result, her relationship with Anna's father quickly went downhill… Getting depressed after giving birth Shutterstock Anna had never known this, but her father became increasingly mentally abusive to his wife when she was less and less able to actively contribute due to the depression. She didn’t feel safe in her house anymore and wanted to leave, but knew she could not take Anna with her in fear of what her husband might do to her... Her husband was abusive Shutterstock In the month before she left, she had gotten in contact with another man who convinced her that he was falling in love with her. He promised her that if she would come to live with him, he would find a way to also get Anna to join them. He was fairly rich and assured her he could afford the legal procedures. A rich man promising to help Shutterstock She had foolishly agreed to this and was picked up by him without her husband's or Anna’s knowledge that fateful night. But she would quickly realize that she had made a big mistake, as the man had no intention of ever reuniting Anna and her or treating her any better than her husband had… Treating her badly Shutterstock The man was taking advantage of her fragile mental state at that point, but he had not counted on Dorothy's determination to get the best for her daughter, despite the danger she would put herself in. After a couple of years in this terrible situation, she had come up with a plan… Planning her escape Shutterstock She had found out the code to the safe and one a night when the man was away, she emptied it and fled the house. After finding out that Anna had moved, she arranged everything with a local bank and had the key be put into the necklace. Now she just had to find a way to get it to Anna… Stealing his money Shutterstock And she had another problem. She knew the man from which she fled would never stop looking for her or his money until he found them. Unless he believed that there was nothing to be found… Dorothy decided that her only choice was to fake her death and send the package with the necklace and picture to Anna. Faking her own passing Shutterstock This was the end of the letter. Seeing as the boxes had not been touched since they were stored at the bank, it seemed that her mother's plan had worked. Tears had started to well up in Anna’s eyes and even Thomas had trouble keeping from sniffling. Anna had a wrong impression of her mother for so many years… Anna feels terrible Shutterstock Opening the boxes, they indeed found the money described in the letter. But the couple didn’t really seem to care about it. They didn’t need the money, they were happy with their lives, and taking it just didn’t feel right. After talking for a little bit, they came to a decision as to what to do with it… They didn't want the money Shutterstock They want to donate all the money to charity. And specifically to a charity dedicated to helping people with depression and/or to a charity helping women in similarly bad situations as Dorothy had been in with Anna’s father and the man from which she stole the money. It felt like the only right thing to do. Donating it to charity Shutterstock They set everything up with the bank employee so that the money could go directly to the charity’s and after that, they set out on their way home. But not before making one more stop. The bank employee had looked a bit deeper into their archives while Anna and Thomas were in the safe and found something interesting. Another message Shutterstock There was a cryptic message sent to the bank years later which was intended to be given to the person that came to open the safe. It hadn’t shown up immediately because it had not been digitized yet. It was another set of coordinates and when Thomas looked these up, he immediately realized what they would find there… More coordinates Shutterstock Anna and Thomas parked the car. The sun was starting to set and the couple walked towards where the coordinates lead them. It was a graveyard and they quickly found the gravestone which they had been looking for. It was a simple stone, and all that was written on it was the date of birth, passing and a name; Dorothy… A graveyard Shutterstock Knowing where her mother was buried was worth much more to Anna than any amount of money she could have ever left her. She was able to pay her the final respect that she deserved, even if she was decades too late with it. Paying her final respects Shutterstock The couple stood there for about an hour, before returning home and Anna vowed to come back here at least once a year on her mother’s birthday. The events of this story are entirely fictional and are products of the author’s imagination. Images included are meant for illustration purposes only. Any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

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