Chapter 15: The Gala

I read the email twice.

Then I got up and kicked the couch until Ollie woke up.

"July first," he said. "That's twenty-five days."

"I know what July first is."

"Four videos of Benji? Over my big, dead, extremely heavy body."

"She'll sue me for one point two million."

"Then you need a lawyer who isn't scared of her."

"Who are you texting at midnight?"

"My husband. He went to law school with half of Music Row. He'll know who eats people like Lisette for breakfast."

He sent it, and then he lay back down and put a cushion over his face.

"Go to sleep, Fee. Monsters keep till morning."

Jameson knocked on Wednesday evening with his hands empty for once.

"I have to ask you something," he said. "You can say no."

"I usually do."

"Saturday is the children's hospital gala. On the harbor. I chaired it for three years."

"I'm not chairing it now. They asked me to come and be quiet."

His mouth moved.

"The foundation heard your song. Half the third floor played it for them."

"They want me to sing."

"They want you to sing. They asked me to ask. I told them you'd probably say no."

I leaned on the doorframe.

"Your mother will be there."

"In the front row. With Lisette."

A room full of the people who'd watched me sign away my house.

Lisette, in the front row, smiling.

"My name on the program," I said. "Not Crumb's mom. Not Fee. Felicity Dunagan."

"Done."

"Benji stays home with Ollie."

"Done."

"And you don't get up and say anything about me."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"That one's harder," he said. "Done."

On Saturday night I wore the only long dress I'd packed.

Midnight blue, for a brand dinner that never happened.

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