Severed Mother-Daughter Ties novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Speech Draft

On Friday night, the day before the gala, a courier brought a garment bag to my door.

Dustin was on my couch eating cereal out of the box, and Wylie was at my table with his laptop.

"Sign here," the courier said.

I signed, and I laid the bag across the arm of the sofa.

The card pinned to it was cream, with a gold border.

It read: "For tomorrow. Everyone will be so kind to you. C."

"Don't open it," Dustin said.

"Of course I'm going to open it."

"Then let me stand behind you with the cereal."

I pulled the zipper down.

Inside was a yellow sundress, new, cut for a woman and not a child, with thin straps and a full skirt.

A pink barrette was pinned to the hanger.

Wylie stood up so fast his chair fell over.

"She sent you the poster," he said.

"She sent me a costume."

"Why would she..." He stopped. "Because it's a trap."

"Explain it to the man with the cereal," Dustin said.

"Claimants dress like the girl. Half of the forty-one came to the foundation in yellow." Wylie's voice was tight. "Tomorrow, you walk into that ballroom in this, and it's the proof."

"Proof of what?"

"That you studied her. That you copied the poster."

"And if I don't wear it?"

"Then it's in her speech anyway." He turned the laptop around. "Read it."

I sat down and read.

He had found it on the foundation's shared drive, where he was the administrator and she was a user who had never learned to hide a file.

The title was "Annie-Rose Gala: Remarks." It was five pages long.

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