A servant was sent running out of the room. Within minutes, the Sinclair family’s trusted appraiser entered. His white hair gleamed under the chandeliers as he adjusted his glasses and took the velvet box from my hand. Lifting the Alexandrite brooch with careful hands, he brought out a machine and placed it gently beside the brooch. The room went quiet as they watched the scene

“We’ll start with a refractive index test,” he murmured, almost to himself. " If it’s truly Alexandrite, its light will bend within a very narrow range.”

He pressed the gem against the glass plate of the refractometer and tilted a tiny mirror to catch the...