The Bride He Replaced novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Microphone

A waiter was already sweeping the glass off the marble when Miles reached us.

"Just a little excitement, everyone," he called over his shoulder, with his hand clamped around Camilla's elbow. "Please enjoy your drinks."

The band started up again, too loudly.

He turned his smile on me and let it go.

"You're not supposed to be here," he said quietly.

"You put me at table nineteen."

"I put you where you'd be comfortable. Hannah, listen to me. Go home. I'll send a car."

"I don't have a home. You changed the lock."

"That's a misunderstanding."

"Your doorman gave me two suitcases tagged Tuesday."

Miles's eyes flicked to Bea and back.

"We'll talk about this tomorrow, privately. Like adults."

"We're having it now," I said. "Like a wedding."

I stepped around him.

I had never done anything like it in my life, and my knees felt thin, but my feet kept going toward the band.

The singer was a young woman in a sequined dress.

She stopped mid-line when she saw me coming, and I held out my hand for the microphone.

She looked past me for Miles.

Then she looked at my belly, and she gave me the microphone.

"Thank you," I said, and my own voice boomed across two hundred people.

Every head turned.

The room went quiet except for the trumpet, which cut off a second later.

"My name is Hannah Draycott," I said. "Some of you saw me this afternoon. Some of you have seen the video that says I made the pregnancy up."

I held up my phone with the sonogram in my other hand.

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