They Sold Me in My Sister's Place, So I Took Their House novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Gala

"I dream about it," I said.

The lie came out smoothly because I had used it before, in the last life, on a doctor.

"A staircase with an open side. I fall every time. I don't know where I got it."

Cormick looked at me for a long moment.

"You said we wouldn't ask about each other's past," he said.

"A dream isn't the past."

"No." The flashlight clicked off in his hand. "It isn't."

He didn't believe me. He also did not push.

"There's a gala on Saturday," he said instead. "The Eberly Foundation, at the Pierre. Four hundred people. I'd like you there."

"As the audience?"

"As my wife."

I said yes, and told myself it was in the terms.

On Saturday night I stood at the top of the hotel's marble staircase in a green dress that the housekeeper had found and altered while I slept.

Cormick waited at the bottom.

He looked up, and the look went through me, plain and unguarded.

I took the stairs one at a time with my hand on the rail.

He offered his arm at the last step. I took it, and we walked into the ballroom together.

Four hundred heads turned.

"Mrs. Eberly," a man said, bowing slightly.

"Mrs. Eberly," said a woman with diamonds at her throat. "We were so sorry to miss the wedding."

"There wasn't much to miss," I said, and got a laugh.

Cormick's arm tightened a little under my hand.

Russell was at the bar.

He wore a tuxedo and carried a glass of whiskey.

He had clearly started early.

He came across the floor with two men in dark suits, board members from his father's firm.

"There she is," Russell said, loudly, and lifted his glass. "The famous Mrs. Eberly. Gentlemen, my little sister. We found her at six years old, in a shelter. Dad took her in as a charity case."

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