After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Whole Voicemail

Gwen did not wait for the toast.

She walked onto the stage while the board chair was still lifting her glass.

She took the microphone from its stand with a polite smile.

"Forgive me," she said. "I'm a guest tonight, and I have a short presentation. I won't take long."

The chair stepped toward her, and Gwen held up a hand.

"It's about honesty," she said. "Someone here has been calling me a liar for two weeks. Let the room decide."

She nodded to the technician at the back.

He hesitated, and the chair gave him no signal, so he pressed play.

My own voice filled the ballroom.

"I can't look at you," it said. "Don't come."

It sounded shaky and young.

Three hundred people went quiet.

On the screen behind Gwen, a gray waveform pulsed with each word.

"That's from the fourteenth night," Gwen said. "Harper Linwood, at two in the morning, in her own voice. She told her husband not to come home. I only passed it on."

She looked out over the tables, her eyes bright and wet.

"I'm not the villain you've been told I am," she said. "I'm the one who did what she asked."

I heard a noise behind me.

It was Quentin, breathing out hard through his teeth.

I put a hand on his sleeve.

"Wait," I said.

I walked to the stage.

My heels were loud on the parquet, and the room parted for me.

At the steps, the board chair was standing with her clutch open.

She took out the small black phone, the one from the drawer.

"It's still company property," she said. "I thought you might want it tonight."

"How did you know?"

"I read the same story you did. She said she was bringing something. I brought the original."

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