The Husband Who Lied to Me novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Eighty Guests
The warehouse floor had been swept and hung with white lights, and eighty people sat at round tables where the forklifts usually ran.
A banner over the loading dock said Forty Years of Tillman Marine.
My grandfather's first invoice hung beside it in a frame.
I came in at seven in the blue dress I had worn to his funeral, with Russ at my side in the one suit he owned.
Heads turned.
Some people had heard about the steakhouse, and the rest knew something was wrong.
The Seattle buyer sat at table one with two men in expensive jackets.
At table two sat Marlene in lavender, with her chin up, and beside her, with a hand on Kristen's back, Nolan.
Kristen wore navy.
She had on makeup that did not hide her swollen eyes.
Nolan stood when he saw me, and his smile came on like a switch.
"Ruby. You made it. You look beautiful."
"Thank you," I said. "I'd like to say a few words first."
"Of course. Of course you would."
He thought it was a toast.
The foreman handed me the microphone and the room settled.
I stood where my grandfather had stood every year, in front of the dock doors, and looked at eighty faces.
"My grandfather started this company in a boat shed with two employees and a borrowed truck," I said. "Forty years later you're his family, and so am I. Thank you for keeping it."
People clapped.
"I'm going to ask you to hear something that isn't pleasant, because he would have wanted you to hear it from me."
The clapping died.
I turned to table one.
"Gentlemen from Seattle. A paper reached you this month with my name on it, selling you this company. My signature was put there by my husband."
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