On Our Fourth Anniversary, My Husband Posed for Maternity Photos with Another Woman novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Pfister Ballroom

Leah's POV

Brooke's daughter was born at 6:48 that morning, seven pounds and furious.

Fran had gripped one of Brooke's hands, and a nurse the other.

Fran sent me the photo at seven.

Under it she had typed: "Mother and baby fine. The man in the gray suit is sitting in the lobby. Go and do it."

At seven that evening, I walked into the Pfister Hotel in dark green velvet.

Rowan was beside me in his one suit, dry-cleaned, with a camera bag on his shoulder and his hand at my back.

Fran walked on my other side in her best flannel blazer, with her reading glasses on their cord.

She had come straight from the hospital with a vial in her handbag.

The ballroom had three chandeliers and three hundred people in black tie.

A gold banner over the stage read SIXTY YEARS OF KESSLING FLOORING.

I found my table, number one, at the front, and I sat down with my hands in my lap.

Marianne stood across the room in a silver gown, receiving guests, and she saw me.

For one second her smile slipped.

Then she lifted her glass to me, graciously, in front of everybody, and I lifted mine.

Water.

At seven-fifteen exactly, she went up to the lectern.

The room quieted for her.

"Friends," she said, in her low, warm voice, "my family's dream began with one rented warehouse and one very stubborn man."

Applause.

In the front row, six old men in dinner jackets nodded.

"Tonight I am blessed with two more reasons to be proud," she went on. "This winter and this spring, the Kessling family will welcome two new babies."

She turned her head and smiled straight at me.

"My son's wife, Leah, is expecting in May. Leah, darling, come up and take a bow."

Three hundred heads turned.

I stood up, smoothing the velvet over my stomach.

Rowan stayed in his chair, and I could feel him watching me the whole way.

I walked up the steps to the stage.

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