My Family Sold Me for Their Favourite Daughter novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Stage

"She's unwell," my mother said again, to the silence.

Nobody applauded.

A man at the nearest table set his fork down very carefully.

Then a chair scraped at the head table, and Callie stood up in her gold gown.

"Callie, sit," my mother said, without turning her head.

Callie walked toward the stage.

She walked slowly and did not look at the head table.

"Callie," Benton said. "Don't."

She stepped around him.

At the foot of the steps she looked up at me, and I put out my hand.

She took it and climbed.

"I'd like the microphone," she said.

My mother's grip on my arm tightened, and then, because four hundred people were watching, she let go.

Callie bent toward the stand.

Her voice came out thin and cracked, and the speakers made it enormous.

"My name is Callie Lowry. My mother adopted me when I was nine. I've been the favourite for nineteen years."

A murmur ran through the tables.

"Seven years ago in October, I drove my mother's car home from this same dinner. I was drunk. I drove down Route 6 and I hit a man on a bicycle."

She stopped and swallowed.

"He was forty-one. He had a seven-year-old daughter. He died in the road."

"Callie," my mother said, very softly.

"My sister called 911. She was sitting next to me. She did nothing wrong."

Callie turned and looked at our mother.

"You and Benton came before the police. You put me in the back seat. You said Willa would be the one who was driving. When she wouldn't, you sent her away."

"That's untrue," my mother said to the room. "She is confused. She's been under a great deal of strain."

"I'm not confused." Callie's voice rose. "I've never been less confused. You said it by the car. I was in the back seat with the door open, and I heard you."

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