Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Seven Pieces

June's POV

Two hundred glasses went up, and I kept mine at my hip.

"To a girl who taught this house a lesson," the guests murmured, and drank.

Constance held my eyes over the rim of hers.

Then, at the far end of the room, someone played a note.

It was one note, a middle C on the baby grand, and the quartet had stopped.

The pianist sat on the bench with his back straight and his hands on the keys.

He played the first four bars of the tune he had once taught a nineteen-year-old at a different piano, in a different room, with his hand on the back of her chair.

The room turned.

"Mrs. Hollin," he said, without standing. "I'd like to add a toast, if the house allows."

"Of course, darling," said Constance. Her voice was smooth. "Though you've always played better than you speak."

He stood.

"Seven years ago tonight, at half past eight, I walked out onto your terrace for air," he said. "You were on the phone, and you didn't hear me."

Nobody in the room was holding a glass now.

"You said, 'It's insured for twice that. Do it tonight.' I thought you meant a cake order." His voice shook once and held. "At nine forty you called the police. I knew what you'd said, and I said nothing, and Tessa Lind went to jail."

"Two nights in a county cell," I said, to nobody.

My own voice startled me.

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