Chapter 17: Founders' Day

Delaney's POV

The ballroom had been reset for the Founders' Day luncheon, with white cloths and a banner over the stage.

Two hundred and fifty people sat at round tables, and every one of them had the Ledger folded beside the bread plate.

I sat at the family table between Laurence and an empty chair.

My father had taken the chair by the wall.

Shelby sat across from him with her hands in her lap, still in the jeans she had walked in.

Marlene stood at the lectern in navy and pearls, and she did not look like a woman who had read the front page.

She looked like a woman who had written it.

"Welcome, everyone," she said into the microphone. "Founders' Day matters because families matter."

A few people clapped.

"We have had a difficult weekend. I will say only that I love my stepdaughter, and I pray for her."

She smiled at me across the room.

It was a small, tender smile, the one she had given me at every funeral.

I stood up.

"Marlene, I'd like to speak."

"Delaney, sweetheart. Later, at the coffee."

"Now, please."

"This is a luncheon, not a family argument."

"Then let the family argue in front of the family," I said.

Somebody laughed near the back.

Marlene's smile did not move.

"The club has a schedule."

At the next table, the sheriff put down his fork.

He was wearing the gray tie from the wedding.

"Let her talk, Marlene," he said mildly. "I've got nowhere to be."

Marlene looked at him, and then at the room.

"Five minutes," she said.

Laurence's head of security was already at the side of the stage, where the club's big screen hung.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Runaway Bride Is Marrying His Billionaire Boss from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.