Runaway Princess Bride novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Party

I wore a red dress that belonged to the waitress from the truck stop.

She had taken one look at me in the diner doorway at six that evening and said, "Honey, you're going to a war. Wear red."

It was two sizes too long.

She hemmed it with safety pins while three truckers stood around eating pie and sending me their videos.

Tristan stood in the corner of the diner in a borrowed black suit, looking at me.

"You're staring," I said.

"I know."

"Stop it. I have to be mean tonight."

"You'll be perfect."

Birchwater Lodge glowed gold against the dark lake.

Valets in white jackets parked Lexuses and Teslas in the circular drive.

Clinton had hung a banner across the front steps: STROUD SHORES, A NEW CHAPTER FOR NORTHERN MICHIGAN.

I walked up past it in the red dress with my chin up, with Tristan on one side and his driver on the other.

The doorman saw me and went white.

"Miss Wisniewski, Mr. Stroud said you might be arriving. He asked that you be shown straight to him."

"I'll find him myself," I said.

The ballroom was packed.

A hundred and fifty guests in suits and cocktail dresses stood under chandeliers with glasses in their hands.

At the far end, on a little stage, Clinton Stroud stood in a tuxedo with a bandage hidden under combed hair.

He was making a speech about community.

My mother stood to his right, in a cream dress, holding Eli's hand.

Eli looked small and pale.

His dinosaur backpack was on his shoulders.

My heart hurt just looking at him.

Clinton saw me at the back of the room and stopped in the middle of his sentence.

A smile spread over his face, slow and ugly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said into the microphone, "my fiancée has joined us. She's had a difficult day. Delaney, come up here and tell everyone you're sorry."

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