I Don't Want Your Love Out of Pity novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Stage

Leandra's POV

The microphone was warm from the president's hand.

Three thousand people looked up at me, and for one moment I saw nothing but white lights.

"Good evening," I said. "My name is Leandra Linwood. I am also Mrs. Conal Draper."

A ripple went through the hall.

"Seven years ago, a barn on the Sweetgrass burned down."

"I went inside it, and a beam broke my back. I spent three years in a wheelchair, and I've spent four and a half more learning to stand."

"Tonight, I'd like you to hear how it started."

I lifted my phone toward the sound booth at the back, where an old man in a cap gave me a thumbs-up.

The speakers crackled.

Priscilla's voice filled the hall, warm and clear and amused.

"Do you know what a barn costs to burn, Leandra? A can of fuel and one dry night. It's cheaper than your surgery."

The hall went quiet.

"I was in the house when Papa gave the order. I had a glass of wine."

Beside me, Priscilla made a noise.

I did not turn around.

"Nobody wants a cripple's word against a Dane's."

The recording clicked off.

Nobody moved.

In the front row, a rancher's wife in a fur collar put her hand to her chest.

Behind her, a man in a good hat stood slowly up, and then another, and then a whole row.

At the end of it I saw the foreman with his hat held in both hands.

"That's a trick," Priscilla said, and her voice cracked right across the speakers. "That's edited. She's a liar, she's a foreman's charity case, and she's been after this ranch since the day she-"

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