The Choices We Made novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Her Chair Again

Eliza walked into the Hospital Foundation ballroom in a green dress with her husband's arm under her hand.

Four hundred seats had been set. Chandeliers hung over every one.

By the time the soup was served, a hundred and twenty were empty.

The people who had come stood in knots along the walls, and when Eliza passed they stopped talking.

She did not look away from any of them.

At the head table, between the chairman of the hospital board and a vacant place card, stood her chair.

It was the same one Gretchen had taken from her weeks ago.

Her name was on the card in gold ink, because nobody had been brave enough to take it off.

She pulled out the chair, and she sat.

Weston sat next to her.

On the far side of the table, Constance rose in black silk and tapped her glass with a spoon.

"Good evening," she said. "Thank you all for coming on such an unusual week."

Nobody laughed.

"There have been rumors. I would ask the room to remember who built this hospital's pediatric wing. I would ask you to consider who is spreading these stories, and why."

She turned her eyes on Eliza.

"A woman with a grievance and a motive can make a great deal of noise."

"Mother," Weston said quietly. "Sit down."

"I will not be silenced in my own city by a nurse."

At the back of the room, double doors opened.

Four people walked in. A plainclothes detective, a woman in a blue blazer, and two uniformed officers.

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