Her Wedding Dress novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Courage Award

I went to the gala because the invitation said I was Mrs. Clifton Ashdown.

I wanted to hear how that sounded in a ballroom.

My mother kept the baby.

Rhett wore a dark suit and carried a thin envelope in his inside pocket.

Clifton had sent the letter to my lawyer the week before, with no note.

It was the doctor's letter, and under it was Lydia's signed release.

It was the only decent thing Clifton had done since the wedding.

The Ashdown Foundation held its gala in the glass atrium of the art museum.

Three hundred guests sat at round tables, and a string quartet played.

A screen over the stage read: Lydia's Light, A Night of Courage.

Judith found us before we reached our table.

She wore silver, and she smiled for the photographers as if she meant it.

"Mrs. Ashdown," she said. "How lovely. You'll sit with the family."

"I'll stand."

"As you like." Her voice dropped. "Smile, and say nothing. You have a child to think of."

"I'm thinking of her," I said.

She went to the stage.

The lights went down, and a slideshow began.

Lydia as a child, Lydia in a hospital gown, Lydia giving the camera a brave thumbs-up.

I looked at Rhett.

"That one is real," he said into my ear. "Two years ago, she was sick."

"Then she knew exactly what she was borrowing."

"Yes."

Lydia came up the steps in a white dress and took a small gold trophy from Judith's hands.

The room stood to applaud.

She held the trophy to her chest and began to speak about her battle.

Her voice shook in all the right places.

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