Chapter 18: White Dress

Summer went through the service door, and I went after her.

Donovan was a step behind me.

The door let out into the coat-check corridor, the same one, with the same carpet and the smell of floor polish.

Summer stopped at the far end by the linen room, where two men had once stepped out with a sack.

She held Donovan's phone in both hands, and her thumbs were moving.

"Summer," I said.

"Don't come closer."

"Give him the phone."

"I've known his passcode since I was twelve," she said, without looking up. "It's his mother's birthday. He's never changed it."

She pressed the screen hard.

"There. It's done."

Donovan took one step.

"What did you send?"

"What I should have sent two weeks ago, to every name in your press folder. A statement."

Her voice was bright and strange.

"I wrote it so nicely. I said you regret the confusion. I said Kate is unwell, and you're stepping back from the matter to protect her."

"You wrote that in my name."

"Someone had to say it, Donovan. She's been breaking down in front of people for two weeks."

She looked at me at last.

Her eyes were swollen, and her white dress was spotted at the hem.

"She's not stable, Kate. You know it. A woman who's been through what you have. I'm saying it kindly."

I felt myself go cold and still.

"You're telling every newsroom in Chicago that I'm mentally ill," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start 50 Billion Reasons to Leave You from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.