They Faked Her Paralysis, But I Recorded Their Betrayal novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Board

"I fed myself," I said.

I said it into the microphone, because I was still holding it.

My voice went out over the speakers, and Constance flinched.

"I built seven machines in my father's garage with Hal Brewster's lathe," I said. "You sold them. You sold them to donors as proof of your good heart."

"Melina."

"I'm done being fed, Mother."

I set the microphone down on the white chair.

Doran and I walked off the stage together, down the side steps, into the aisle.

People moved out of our way.

Hal was waiting at the top of the aisle with his coat over his arm and tears all over his beard.

"Didn't even have to run the second file," he said hoarsely. "I had a whole speech for the second file."

I put my arms around him.

"Kid, you're going to wrinkle my tux," he said, and held on.

The lobby was a mob.

Camera crews had left the hall at a run, and reporters crowded under the chandelier shouting questions at nobody.

Donors stood in knots, phones out, saying "five million" and "I gave twice" and "she told me it was a mortgage on a clinic."

A tall woman with white hair and a plain navy suit pushed through them and stopped in the middle of the marble floor.

I knew her face from the Foundation's annual report.

She was the board chair, and she had never once spoken to me.

"Is Constance Hollin here?" she asked, loudly.

"She's coming," someone said. "Elora went out the stage door with a police officer. Nobody's seen her since."

Constance came out of the hall doors on Colin's arm.

She had put her face back on, pearls straight, chin high.

Colin let go of her at the doors and stepped aside and put his hands in his pockets.

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