After Rebirth The Scums All Cry For Forgiveness novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Five Seconds
The Penhallow charity ball was held every year in the big white ballroom at the hotel on the bay.
Three hundred people came to it.
My father had sent an invitation to the grey house anyway.
It was printed on thick cream card, and it said *with the family.*
"He wants us there," I said.
"He wants a witness for the annulment," Rowan said. "If the papers go badly, he wants everyone in the room to have seen you smile for the photographs."
"Do I smile?"
"You do whatever you want."
I wore dark green, with my hair down.
He wore black, and for the first time in two years he wore nothing in his lap.
"I've been doing the exercises," he said in the car.
"Every night for nine nights. I know. I kept track."
"I want to try something at the door."
"No."
"You don't know what I'm going to say."
"You're going to say you want to stand."
He was quiet.
"Rowan, your legs aren't ready. Nine nights is nothing. You could fall in front of three hundred people."
"Then I'll fall."
"That's not the answer."
"It's the one I have."
I looked out of the window.
Then I took his hand and held it on the seat, and he held mine back.
His driver rolled the chair out of the trunk at the ballroom steps.
Every head in the lobby turned when we came through the doors.
I knew what they saw.
A girl from nowhere, the sick man's bride, the quack who hurt her own brother.
Phones came out.
I walked with one hand on the arm of his chair and my chin up.
Inside, the room glittered.
A band was playing in the corner.
At the head of the long table, my father stood with a glass in his hand.
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