One Fateful Night with My Boss novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: After the Doors Close

I did not run after her, and I did not wait for the room to clap.

I walked down the long carpet at the pace I had once walked it with a tray.

Nelson let me go alone.

The coat check was a half-door in the lobby with a girl behind it in a black vest.

My mother stood at the counter between two guards, and the girl was handing over a red wool coat.

Brooke was already gone, and a guard was holding the lobby doors for her.

My mother took the coat and turned.

Her sequins were crooked, and her mascara had run down one cheek.

"Frannie," she said. "Baby. I was scared."

"Of what?"

"Of the rent, honey. Of everything. A mother does what she has to."

"I was scared too," I said. "I was twenty-three, and I was scared of you."

"A scared mother picks up the phone and says her daughter's name," I said.

She flinched, and I let her.

"You told him I was never his," I said. "I was never yours either."

"That was the whole trouble in our house."

I reached out and took hold of the tag at her waist.

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