After We Got Engaged, the Six of Us Planned One Last Trip Together Before the Wedding or 24-Hour Couple Swap novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Final Cut

Winston's POV

In nine years of inspections, I have learned that structures fail in a particular order.

First a hairline crack that nobody wants to see. Then a gap. Then, all at once, the thing everyone said was fine.

I stood in the dark at the back of Hollis Barn and waited for the first crack.

The screen lit up white.

Music began, a bright, soft song about being young, and the words Our Six, Our Year appeared in gold script.

A hundred and eighty people sighed with pleasure.

I had left Vera's opening exactly as she made it, and it ran for three minutes.

There was Larch Point in the autumn light, the lake silver, the dock. There was Casper laughing with a plate of eggs, and Melina holding her cup with both hands, and Tyler throwing a stone.

There was Signe, in the cream sweater, turning to look at the camera.

She looked straight at it, and she looked so happy that I heard a sound go through the barn.

I knew it for what it was. It was the sound of Vera's guests loving her work.

Beside me, Melina whispered, "Winston, I can't."

"You can."

"I'm going to be sick."

"You are not in the video, Melina." I kept my voice low and level. "You are standing at a desk. Hold the edge."

She held the edge of the table.

The young man in the black T-shirt looked from one of us to the other. He took off his headphones.

"Is this the right file?" he whispered.

"It's the right file," I said.

The song faded, and I put my finger on the key.

The screen went black for the length of a breath.

Then Vera's face filled it.

It was the dinner at Larch Point, with the candles in front of her. She was laughing, and the lamplight caught her gold chain.

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