Four People, Four Tickets, They Treated Me Like a Shadow, So I Left Them Behind novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Cold Air

Nobody in the Linden Room moved.

Then a chair scraped, and an old man at the third table stood up with his napkin in his fist.

"Bernadette," he said. "Is it true? Did you pay for this building out of that girl's father's money?"

"Sit down," Bernadette said.

"I'm asking you a question in front of the church."

Bernadette opened her mouth, and for the first time in six years I watched her look for an answer and find nothing in the drawer.

"Eighty people just watched your bar tab fail," Dot said from the back, in a voice that could have cleared a diner at closing. "You can say it's an error. But the bank has paper, Bernadette. And so do I."

I put the microphone down on the stage.

I walked down the three steps and across the dance floor, between the round tables, with eighty faces turning to follow me.

Nobody stopped me.

I pushed through the double doors and out into the cold.

The parking lot behind the hotel was half empty and lit by one tall lamp.

My hands were shaking again. I leaned against the tailgate of Keir's rented truck and breathed.

My phone buzzed against my hip with Stanton's name on it, and I turned it face down on the tailgate.

And my husband had asked me for the phone.

I heard the doors bang open behind me and footsteps cross the asphalt.

"Freya."

"Don't."

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay."

"Good."

"I just wanted to see where you went."

I turned around.

Keir stood a few feet away with his jacket off and his shirtsleeves rolled, breathing hard.

All the anger I had not used on Stanton was suddenly looking for somewhere to go.

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