I Stopped Chasing Him, and My New Boss Was His Brother novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Who Wrote It

I walked down the center aisle in my red dress with two hundred people turning in their chairs.

My heels were loud on the polished floor.

On stage, Hugh saw me and lost his smile.

It slid off his face one piece at a time.

"Jo," he said into the microphone, and the speakers carried it into every corner.

I stopped at the foot of the steps.

The director of the Marlow Foundation had gone ahead of me. She took the microphone off its stand, and she held it out to me without a word.

"Thank you," I said.

My hands were steady. I had been rehearsing this for three years without knowing it.

"Good evening," I said. "My name is Joelle Brandish."

"This is a private event," Hugh said fast. "She is a former friend, and she is unwell."

"Page four of the grant narrative," I said. "The paragraph about the whales."

I did not need a copy.

"*The whales do not leave because the water is cold. They leave because it is time, and they come back because they are stubborn.*"

A murmur went through the room.

"Dr. Pendry says Tansy Rudge wrote that sentence. I wrote it. I also wrote the three paragraphs before it, the budget justification, and the line about the children's tide pools that made the foundation cry."

"That's absurd," Hugh said.

"I wrote it over three winters at our kitchen table, while you were out collecting samples with her. You said it was a favor to the family."

"Jo, please, you're confused..."

"Ms. Rudge." The director's voice cut through the hall, dry and clear. "You are listed as lead author on the survey that supported this grant. Would you explain the sampling method to the room?"

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