He Married His Childhood Sweetheart for Her Prank, I'm Nobody's Mistress, EVER novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Microphone

I sat at the front table with the gift bag in my lap and didn't open it.

Bea sat on my left, filming under the tablecloth.

Declan sat on my right.

The girl with the pale braid had come in through the kitchen, and she sat at the far end with a laptop bag at her feet and her face white as paper.

Mrs. Ashworth sat across from me, upright, in black.

Rodney's chair was empty.

At eight, the lights dimmed and Delphine walked to the podium in her white dress.

The ballroom went quiet at once.

"Four years ago tonight," she said, "I lost my brother."

She let it sit.

A woman at the next table began to cry.

"Tobin was twenty-five. He was funny and he was stupid and he never once locked his truck." People laughed through their tears. "And he went into freezing water because a girl he barely knew was drowning."

She looked down at me.

Three hundred heads turned.

"Emme is here tonight. She's been through so much this month, and I want to say, in front of everyone, I forgive her."

A hush went through the room.

"Emme," she said, sweetly. "Will you come up and say thank you to him?"

The lights swung toward my table.

Bea's hand closed on my wrist.

"It's a trap," she breathed.

"I know."

"Look up."

I looked.

Above the podium, a rope ran from a ceiling rig to a steel bucket, hung out of sight of the audience.

Water glittered in it, and I could see a floating skin of ice.

A crew girl stood in the wings with a hand on the rope.

I felt the whole thing arrive at once.

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend