Stepping-Stone for Mia novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Kelly's Rule
The auditorium at Harbor Point sat three hundred.
By a quarter to nine on Monday, every seat was full, and they'd opened the doors at the back.
The nurses had come.
Not just the night shift. Labor and Delivery, the NICU, the cancer floor, the ER.
They stood along both side walls in their scrubs, shoulder to shoulder, from the stage to the doors.
Somebody had made buttons. Small white ones with black letters.
5 MINUTES.
The youngest nurse pinned one on my lapel and one on Ronnie's shirt.
"Every nurse in the building's got one," she said. "We ran out at six and made more."
The hospital board sat on the stage at a long table with a white cloth.
Twelve people in suits, with name cards and water glasses.
The CEO sat at the end. He didn't look at me.
Bennett sat in the front row, alone, in his white coat.
Nobody had sat next to him.
Ronnie sat beside me in the second row, with a folder on his knees.
Kelly's mother sat on my other side with June, who was trying to eat a 5 MINUTES button.
Tim stood at the back wall with the anesthesia department, his arms crossed.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Stepping-Stone for Mia are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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