Chapter 12: The Gala

Jessa looked at me for one second across the corridor.

Then she turned and walked into the ballroom, with my mother's earrings swinging against her jaw.

Applause rose through the wall.

"They put her on stage," I said.

"Which means they're about to play the video," said Gabe.

"We have one minute."

"We have the sound desk."

My charge nurse's brother ran the hotel's sound board.

For nine days he had said very little and written down everything I asked.

We went through the kitchen and out a side door into the back of the ballroom.

Three hundred people in black tie sat at round tables under the chandeliers.

At the far end was a stage with a screen as wide as the wall.

Diane stood at the podium in a silver gown, with Jessa beside her in green.

"Family," Diane said, in her warm voice, "is the first hospital any of us ever visits."

People laughed softly.

"This year our foundation honors a family who has been through a trial."

Jessa's hand went to her stomach.

"Carlton and Jessa are expecting their first child."

Carlton stood from table one, and everyone applauded.

"And because we believe in telling the whole truth, we'd like to show you what a hard season looks like."

The lights dimmed.

On the screen appeared a clip I knew by heart.

A woman in a navy blazer stood in a foyer with spilled cake at her feet and a necklace in her fist.

It was slowed and cut so that my face held on the words "Take that off" for several seconds.

A soft piano tune played under it.

A narrator's voice, Teagan's, said: "Our dear Claire has been struggling for some time."

My stomach turned over.

Three hundred heads turned toward a screen showing a woman who had come undone.

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