Chapter 22: The Chipped Tooth

I stopped at the end of the aisle, three feet from Peyton's lawyer.

Ninety faces turned with me.

"You said a friend has no standing," I said.

"That's the law."

"Then let's use your law." I kept my voice level, so the back row could hear.

"Your client says she's Carly's sister. Does anyone in this room know her?"

The lawyer opened her mouth.

I didn't wait.

"Raise your hand if Carly ever told you she had a sister."

Not one hand went up.

I looked at the middle-school friends and the women from her work.

"Raise it if you ever saw Peyton Keelan before the news."

Nothing moved.

"She had a twin," I said. "Carly kept it secret because she was afraid of how it would sound."

I took a folded page out of my purse.

The edges were soft already from being held.

"This is Carly's last letter to me, and I'll read you one line," I said.

"Her name is Peyton, and she asked me last week if she could meet you."

A murmur ran down the pews.

I turned the page over.

"Peyton had five months to walk up to me and say, I'm her sister. She could have sat at my table as herself."

"My client was in shock," the lawyer said.

"Then where is she?" I asked. "She sent you to claim the body. Why isn't she standing here?"

The lawyer looked at the empty seat at the front.

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