Chapter 22: Play the Rest

Justine's POV

My own voice filled the ballroom, and two hundred people heard me say it.

"I forced you into this," the recording said. "I'm not going to keep you in it past the year."

Jarrett held up a hand and the technician stopped the clip.

"There it is," he said. "On the wedding night, behind a locked door. A divorce planned before the cake was cold."

A murmur ran around the tables.

"A sham, Aunt Lorna. From the first hour."

I stood up and walked to the head table.

Rafe stood too, and I touched his arm.

"Let me," I said.

I took the microphone from the stand.

"Thank you, Jarrett," I said. "That's my voice. Those are my words."

His smile widened.

"I have two questions."

"Ask them."

"Who put a microphone in the white roses in the bridal suite on my wedding night?"

The smile stayed on his face, but it stopped moving.

"That wasn't a hotel recording. The hotel has no microphones in its suites."

I held his eyes.

"Somebody paid a florist to hide a baby monitor in the flowers."

"I can't imagine..."

"Delphine."

Delphine stood at the surgeon's table with a folder in her hands.

"Invoice from the florist for the wedding flowers," she said clearly.

"Paid from the Holloway Gala Fund and authorized by the committee chair. There's a tip on it for twelve hundred dollars."

The ballroom went quiet.

"That's my signature," Jarrett said slowly. "Because I hosted the wedding."

"Is it also your signature," Delphine said, "on a cash withdrawal of twenty-four thousand dollars?"

She turned a page.

"From the children's wing money, the Wednesday before the fair."

The surgeon stood up.

"I have the statement here," he said. "As the chair of Mercy General's board, I'd like to know where my hospital's money went."

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