Chapter 21: Live

The theater held eleven hundred people, and every seat was full.

I stood in the wings in the green dress with Pia's hand on my back and a stage manager counting down in my ear.

"Ten seconds. Live in ten."

Keith was beside me.

He had not let go of my fingers since the car.

"If it goes wrong," he said.

"It won't."

"If it does, you walk off. Do you hear me? I'll finish it."

"Keith."

"Mara."

"We'll finish it together."

He nodded once.

The host strode out into the lights, and the audience roared.

"Good evening, America," he said. "Tonight, the end of Switch Houses!"

I stood and listened to the next forty minutes from the wings.

The host introduced the couples.

He ran a clip of Vera crying over her credit card, and a murmur of sympathy and delight moved through the seats.

Vera sat on a velvet sofa in a pink gown, smiling bravely, with her eyes on the cameras.

Ashton sat beside her in a black tuxedo and held her hand, because it was still the story.

At nine-thirty-one, the host lowered his voice.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Mara Ellison, Keith Danner, would you come out?"

We walked into the light together.

The applause crashed over me.

Behind the glare I could see the shapes of cameras, a red light on every one, and the dark wall of faces beyond them.

Six million people were watching.

Nobody could cut this.

The host took my hand and turned me gently toward the sofa.

"Mara, you have had a hard few weeks. You've been called some terrible names. But tonight, I think you have an answer for us."

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