My Fake Wedding Was the Start of Their Real Prison novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Same Ballroom
The bus pulled up to the hotel in Santa Monica at a quarter to six.
It had a bathroom.
Forty-one retired teachers climbed down the steps one at a time, in cardigans and good shoes, holding on to the rail.
The retired teacher came last, with her blue binder under her arm.
She hugged me on the sidewalk.
"I brought the lemon cake," she said. "It's on the bus. For after."
Caelen took the binder from her so she could hold the rail.
He'd come as my guest.
No badge, no title, a suit his grandmother had pressed that morning.
My mother came behind him, in navy, looking at the hotel like she meant to buy it and tear it down.
"Same ballroom?" she said.
"Same ballroom."
"Hm."
Inside, everything was white and gold.
I'd stood on that carpet with frosting in my eyelashes five weeks ago.
Three hundred investors filled the round tables.
A string quartet played in the corner.
The teachers filed into the last four tables at the back.
Kelsey sat at a table near the stage in a white dress, with her phone up, filming the room.
Spencer had taken her back on Tuesday.
She'd posted a picture of the two of them in a hotel bed, captioned forgiven.
She saw me come in and turned the phone toward me.
I waved at it.
By the back doors stood Brett, in a gray suit, beside an older man with a briefcase.
He didn't come in.
He didn't leave either.
At seven the lights went down.
Spencer walked onto the stage in a navy suit, and the whole room applauded.
He waited for it to stop.
"Thank you," he said, in that soft voice. "Thank you all for coming. You know, people call me the most devoted man in this business. I've always been embarrassed by that."
A few people laughed fondly.
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