Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Gala

Thurlow Homes turned thirty years old on a Friday, and Marianne gave the dinner anyway.

The ballroom of the Lindell Hotel held three hundred people at round tables, with white roses on every one.

I stood by the stage and looked at her black suit, and thought how she had worn one to every hard day of my life.

Corbin was already there.

He sat at the head table in the chair beside hers, with his cane against his knee.

He had arrived early, and he had been shaking hands for an hour.

"She's not well," I heard him tell a board member. "We're all very worried."

By the time the soup came, half the room had heard it.

Marianne took the microphone before dessert.

"Thank you for coming," she said. "Thirty years ago my father poured his first foundation, and I want to thank him tonight."

There was warm applause.

Corbin rose, with his napkin in his hand.

"Marianne," he said gently, into the hush. "Before you go on. I think the board has a concern."

The board chair stood up beside him with a folded paper.

"We've had a motion," the man said. "Given the stress of recent weeks, some of us feel the company should be in steadier hands."

A murmur went around the tables.

Corbin put his hand on her arm.

"Nobody wants this," he said. "We love you."

She looked at the hand until he took it away.

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