Chapter 22: The Correction

Lena's POV

The Ellicott ballroom looked exactly as it had on the night of the photographs.

The same gold chairs and white tablecloths.

The same low stage with the Lakeshore Bank banner behind it.

The same photographer stood in the corner, adjusting his light.

I stood just inside the doors in a plain black dress I had bought that morning with my own money.

Nobody had chosen it for me.

"You don't have to be in the room," Nate said at my shoulder.

"I do."

"I told you what he said he'd do."

"And I told you what I'm going to do first."

He looked at me for a moment and then straightened his tie.

"Table four," he said. "Your mother's already got us a bread basket."

Joan sat at the front table in a navy suit I had never seen, her glasses on their cord.

She was buttering a roll.

The room was full. Sponsors, players in suits, a row of reporters along the back wall.

The owner sat beside my mother. She nodded to me once.

At eight o'clock, Travis walked to the podium.

He had shaved, and his tie was straight. The practiced smile was back in place.

The room went quiet.

"Good evening," he said. "Thank you for coming. I have a short statement, and then I'll take no questions."

He unfolded the page.

I held my breath.

"Last month, I told this organization and the press that my wife and I had been separated since June."

His voice was steady.

"That was a lie. We were not separated. My wife did not leave me."