Every morning the woman felt nauseous, and the doctors could not find the cause, until one day, on a bus, an elderly jeweler noticed her necklace and quietly said: “If your life is dear to you, remove this pendant immediately and never wear it again” 

When the woman learned what was hidden inside the pendant her husband had given her, she was filled with real horror 

Every morning for Maria began the same way. She woke up with a heaviness in her body and almost immediately felt the nausea rising in her throat. Sometimes she didn’t even make it to the bathroom in time, but more often she managed to slam the door shut and bend over the toilet. This had been going on for two months already, and during that time she had grown used to the condition, though she could never truly accept it.

After another episode, Maria washed her face with cold water and stood for a long time looking at herself in the mirror. Her face had grown pale, dark circles had appeared under her eyes, and her cheekbones had become sharper. She had visibly lost weight; her clothes hung looser than before. Over those months, she had lost almost seven kilograms, without doing anything special to cause it.

At work, her colleagues began to whisper. Maria caught fragments of conversations about overwork and nervous exhaustion. She had seen a general practitioner, a gastroenterologist, an endocrinologist, and several other doctors. All the tests came back normal. The doctors kept saying the same thing: her body was healthy, there were no serious problems, perhaps the cause was psychosomatic. They advised her to see a psychologist, but Maria did not feel crazy and did not believe that all of this was happening simply because of nerves.

On her way to work, as always, she took the subway. The morning rush hour, the crowd, the smell of coffee, winter coats, and other people’s perfume formed a familiar background for her. Maria held onto the handrail and tried not to think about the nausea. It eased slightly, but the weakness remained.

When an unfamiliar voice sounded beside her, she flinched and opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was an elderly man in a warm jacket and an old fur hat. He looked at her intently, with an almost overly serious expression.

“Take off the chain. I know what’s inside the pendant,” he said quietly.

Maria did not immediately realize that the stranger was addressing her. Instinctively, she covered the jewelry on her chest with her hand and sharply replied that it was a gift from her husband and that he had no right to speak to her that way. The man did not argue and did not raise his voice.

He said he had worked as a jeweler for many years and knew such things well. He pointed to the side edge of the pendant and explained that the thin line was not a pattern or decoration, but a hidden mechanism. Then he handed her a business card and added:

“If your life is dear to you, you must remove the pendant and never wear it again.”

The train stopped, the doors opened, and the man stepped out without looking back. Maria remained standing in the car, the business card in her hand.

All day long she could not concentrate at work. Her thoughts kept returning to the stranger’s words and to the pendant resting on her chest. In the evening, when she returned home, Maria went straight to the bathroom. She turned on the light and examined the jewelry for a long time in the mirror. The silver oval pendant with a delicate lily looked just as beautiful as it had on the day her husband gave it to her for their anniversary.

Maria remembered how her husband had said he had ordered the pendant from a private workshop and wanted to give her a special gift. She ran her finger along the side edge and suddenly felt a barely noticeable unevenness. There really was a thin line. Maria pressed a little harder, and the pendant opened into two halves.

What she saw inside made her feel sick, and she had to lean against the sink to keep from falling  Continuation in the first comment 

Inside the pendant was a tiny capsule with microscopic holes. It contained a rare organic toxin that began to act when warmed by body heat.

Each day it released a very small dose of poison, so small that no test detected poisoning. The poison did not kill immediately.

It slowly destroyed the stomach and the nervous system, causing constant nausea, weakness, and rapid weight loss. From the outside, everything looked like a strange, inexplicable illness.

This was exactly what her husband was counting on. He wanted Maria to fade away gradually, for doctors to shrug their shoulders and speak of an unknown diagnosis. The death was supposed to look natural, without suspicion or traces.

He knew that a few months earlier Maria had registered an apartment inherited from her grandmother in her own name, and he was certain that after her death all the property would pass to him.

The pendant became for him the most convenient and safest way to get rid of his wife and obtain everything, without risking being exposed.