Chapter 19: Honoree Remarks

I wore black.

Estelle had told me once, in a parking lot, to stand by a service door in black.

I wore a long black dress, my grandmother's pearls, and no apology, and I walked through the front doors of the Aldergrove Estate at ten to eight.

Cal came in on my left in a dark suit.

Kelsey followed us, pale, holding my father's notebook against her chest because I had asked her to.

Florence's staff were already working the room with trays of tiny crab cakes.

The ballroom was the same one where my wedding had died six days ago.

Two hundred donors in evening clothes stood under the same chandelier.

On a low stage at the far end, a banner read: "An Evening Honoring Estelle Thurston, Champion of Families."

The venue manager saw me from across the room.

He went the color of paper.

He came toward me fast.

"Ms. Linden, you cannot be here."

"My firm is on the contract."

"Mrs. Thurston instructed us."

"Mrs. Thurston instructed you to bill me for an upgrade I never signed," I said. "I'd think hard before taking any more instructions."

He stopped.

I walked past him to the back of the room, where the audio-visual technician sat behind a laptop.

"Run sheet," I said.

He glanced at the printout, then at my name at the top.

"Honoree remarks at nine fifteen. Video tribute at nine forty-five."

"I have the video."

I held up a flash drive.

"It wasn't loaded on the sheet this morning."

"I'm loading it now. Do you have a problem with that?"

He looked at the stage, and at me, and at the Thurston family table in the front.

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