He Dated Me for My Sister novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Slideshow

I stood up, and Colin stayed on one knee with the ring box open in his hand.

The room waited for me to say yes.

"Before I answer," I said, "I made something for Delaney's birthday."

Mom smiled at me, relieved, wet-eyed.

"The slideshow," she said. "Oh, honey. Play it."

At the corner of the table, Rhys touched his laptop, and the television came on.

The first slide was Delaney at two years old in a tutu.

The room said "aww."

The twenty-six slides went by in a bright, happy line, and my aunt cried at the prom photo.

Then slide twenty-seven came up, and the music stopped.

It was a forum post, black text on gray, with a handle at the top.

lastcornerseat.

Nobody in the room had read it before except the people who had written it.

"What's that?" my cousin said.

I walked to the screen, with my back to the wall and my face to my family.

"This is a post," I said, "from the night Colin asked me out. He wrote that I was plain and sweet and obedient, and that he'd asked me on a whim."

Colin got to his feet.

"Hannah, this isn't..."

"He wrote that he'd bought me a cheap bouquet at the corner shop, and that I acted like he had handed me a car."

I took the plastic sleeve out of my cardigan pocket and held it up by the corner.

The sticker said $14.99.

Somebody at the end of the table laughed once, in shock, and stopped.

"Why would he write that?" Mom said. "Colin. Why would you write that?"

"It's a joke," Colin said. "It's from a game, it's not..."

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