Not His Bride Anymore novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Birthday Lunch

Ainsley's POV:

My mother's birthday lunch had thirty people at it.

They sat at one long table in the Inn's glass dining room, under white lights, with the snow coming down outside.

Her sister was there, and four cousins, and the whole board of the Ambrose Inn in their good jackets.

Every one of them had heard.

Nobody was looking at me.

I walked in at five past noon in a plain gray dress, and the room went quiet.

My mother sat at the head with a glass of champagne untouched in front of her.

She looked tired.

I had never seen her look tired.

"Ainsley," she said. "You came."

"I did."

"Sit. Eat. We'll talk after."

"No."

I did not sit.

Behind me, at the door, I heard a quiet step.

I did not turn around, but I knew who it was.

Elliot took a place against the wall, with his coat still on and his hands behind his back.

A witness.

I had asked for exactly that, and he had given me exactly that.

I made myself look at my mother.

"Last night you told a hotel full of strangers what you did," I said. "Now you'll tell the people who know your name."

"Ainsley..."

"All of it. Right here."

My aunt put down her fork.

"Helen?" she said.

My mother set down her glass.

She stood, slowly, and rested her fingertips on the white cloth.

"Everything I said last night was true," she said. "Every dollar of it."

Nobody breathed.

"I called it protecting her. It was winning a bet."

"From what?" the chairman of the board asked. He was seventy, with white eyebrows, and he did not sound polite.

"From a man I did not trust."

"And the money?"

"My own. Not the Inn's. Not a cent."

The old man grunted.

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