Chapter 23: After the Lights

Backstage was a long concrete corridor lined with road cases and people who did not know where to stand.

Phones came up as we passed, and I heard my name in a dozen voices.

Keith kept his hand on the small of my back and steered me through them.

At the end of the hall, under a flickering exit sign, Vera stood with her gown bunched in her fists.

Her mascara had run.

Two reporters had followed her, and a network lawyer in a gray suit stood at her elbow holding a tablet.

"Keith," she said.

She said it as if she still had the right to.

"Please. We can talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"I'm your wife."

"For another few hours." He stopped three feet from her.

"My lawyer's office opens at nine. Yours won't open at all, because you can't pay him."

"Ashton lied to me. You heard him. He told me it was a joke."

"He told you the money was safe," I said.

She looked at me.

For the first time, there was no kindness in her face and no performance either.

Just a woman running out of floor.

"You," she said. "You took everything."

"I took what I was owed in a courthouse. You took Keith's, and you used my husband's card to do it."

"Ex-husband."

"Yes."

The reporters were writing as fast as they could.

The lawyer cleared his throat.

"Ms. Maddock. Mr. Danner's counsel has agreed to drop the fraud complaint if the money goes back tonight."

Vera stared at him.

"Tonight?"

"Everything you moved is in the holding account. It only needs your signature."

He held up the tablet.

She looked at the screen.

She looked at the two reporters, who were not even pretending not to listen.

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