Chapter 14: Which of Us

Colin's company held its holiday party in a hotel ballroom downtown, with a string quartet and two hundred employees.

I wore the green dress.

I wore it because Simone had told me to, and because it made me look like a woman with nothing to hide.

Nathan walked in beside me in a dark suit with my hand on his arm.

"You're sure?" he asked at the door.

"No."

"Good. Neither am I."

Colin saw us from across the room and went white.

Then he saw who stood beside the bar and went whiter.

Simone was in red velvet, eight months pregnant, with one hand on her belly and one on Colin's elbow.

She was laughing at something a young engineer had said, and she looked like the happiest wife in Seattle.

The engineer looked at me, then at her, then at Colin, and slid away.

"Jean," Simone called, bright and loud. "You came."

Heads turned.

I crossed the floor with Nathan a half step behind me.

"Everyone, this is Jean," Simone said to the group nearest her. "Colin's wife. My oldest friend."

"Your half-sister," I said.

She tilted her head.

"Since Sunday," she agreed. "Isn't it wonderful?"

A woman from accounting made a small noise and put down her wine.

"Colin tells me you've been under the weather," Simone went on. "He's been so worried. We both have."

"We?" I said.

"Colin and I."

She squeezed his elbow, and I watched him not move.

"He's been so good about the baby."

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