She Steps Out Of Betrayal's Shadow To Rebuild Her Broken Home novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Handcuffs on the Lawn

The clip ran to the end in a silence so complete that the canvas wall could be heard flapping.

When the man on the screen turned and looked into the lens, a woman in the second row said, "That's Leland."

Leland came down the stage steps.

He did not run. He walked fast, straight up the aisle between the tables, toward the projector.

"This is a fabricated recording," he said to the room, in a clear and reasonable voice. "My wife is unwell. Please, everyone, stay in your seats."

Nobody stayed in their seats.

A man from the bank stood up, then the whole third row, and Leland had to go around them.

Bianca had put herself between him and the table.

She was shaking from her shoulders down, and she did not step aside.

"Move," Leland said.

"No."

"Bee."

"No." Her voice cracked on it. "I can't do this for you anymore, Lee."

He reached past her for the cable.

Bianca slapped the little black recorder down on the table, on top of the speaker's microphone, and pressed play.

"It wasn't an accident, Bee," said Leland's own voice, gently, through every speaker in the tent.

Leland's hand stopped in the air.

The recording went on for four minutes and ended on the word Probably.

When it was over, a woman near the front was crying quietly into a napkin.

At the tent flap, the doctor with the leather bag picked up his coat and walked out.

"That's a trick," Leland said. His voice had gone high. "She cut it together, ask anyone. She hates me. She's been in my bed for two years and she hates me."

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