I Left Him by Text, and He Kept Paying for My Father's Care novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Two Hundred Guests
The atrium of the Garvey tower was nine stories of glass, and it was full.
Two hundred guests in black tie stood under hanging lights, holding champagne, and a string quartet played near the staircase.
I came in behind my father's wheelchair in the only dress I owned that was good enough, a dark green one Willa had pressed at midnight.
Dad wore the tuxedo.
It fit him nowhere, and he had insisted on the blue cardigan underneath.
"I want people to know it's me," he had said in the van.
Eli walked on my other side in a borrowed suit.
He had not slept.
Neither of us had said what we both knew, that his father had known about the recording and might have an answer ready.
Claire met us at the foot of the staircase in a silver dress, with a small clutch under her arm.
"The sound system has an aux input at the lectern," she whispered. "My father's man ran it this afternoon. I have the cable in here. Willa has her phone and I have the recorder."
"And Gordon's people?"
"Three guards. All at the doors."
"Good."
"Not good," Claire said. "He knows something's coming. He's put you at the head table."
She was right.
A place card with my father's name sat at the center of a long white table on a raised platform.
Mine was beside it.
Eli's was at the far end, beside Claire's father.
Gordon came down the staircase with both arms open.
He looked younger than he had in the courtyard, tanned and silver and rested.
"Martin," he said, and bent to kiss my father on the cheek in front of everyone.
Dad let him.
"Gordon," he said. "You've gotten fat."
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