Chapter 23: Where I'll Be

Willa's POV

The ninety guests came back from the dinner hall with their plates cleared and their faces tired.

Nobody had gone home.

They sat down in the white chairs again.

Thurston's grandmother took the second row and set her purse on her lap.

Mara walked to the stand.

She had washed her face.

Her lipstick was gone for good, and she wore her gray sweater over the white dress.

She took the microphone out of the stand and held it in both hands.

"I had a sentence ready," she said. "I've had it for nine years."

She looked at the first row.

"I was going to say it after Dad said his, and it was going to end the whole family."

"Dad took it first. So I had to find another one."

Nobody stirred.

"I ordered the lilies," Mara said. "I knew she was allergic.

"I wanted someone in my house to hurt the way I did, and I chose the person who loved me first."

Her voice shook, and she let it.

"I sat in a car for five hours and watched a girl wait on a curb.

"I played Guess with her for fourteen years. She lost every round, and she kept coming back and asking if I wanted toast."

She stopped.

"My mother was killed by a drunk man who went on to give me a bedroom.

"Both things are true. Neither one cancels the other."

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