Chapter 22: The Award

Holly's POV

I had taken the microphone from the audio table at the door, and nobody stopped me.

It turns out a woman in a green dress with a steady walk can go anywhere.

Eight hundred heads turned as I came down the center aisle.

I heard the whisper start, and I heard my name in it.

At the front table, Derek's smile held.

Beside him, Gwen's hand went to the boy's shoulder.

Ross stood at the podium and did not move.

When I reached the steps, he held out his hand, and I took it.

I climbed the three steps to the stage.

They are the same three steps in every building.

"Good evening," I said, and my voice went through the speakers, level and warm. "I'm Holly Kane."

The room went still.

"I'm the wife of tonight's nominee."

"You can sit down, Holly," Derek said from the front row, pleasantly. "You're upset."

"I'm not," I said. "I'm fine."

Somebody near the back laughed.

"I won't talk about my daughter tonight," I said. "She's six, and she's asleep, and she has done enough."

"I'm going to talk about what your company paid for."

I nodded to Ross.

He touched the clicker, and the huge screen behind us filled with a spreadsheet.

It was Derek's corporate card statement, line by line.

"Every Sunday since last October," I said. "A pancake house. The zoo in Millbrook. A trampoline park."

"Each one is billed as client entertainment."

"Those were client meetings," Derek said, and his voice carried.

"Name one client."

He didn't answer.

In the third row, a gray-haired man in a gray suit stood up.

"I'm a client," he said. "I've done business with this company for thirty years."

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