They Threw Us in the Snow. I Owned Everything. novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Sixty Women and a Voicemail

The Litchfield Hills Country Club holds its holiday luncheon on the 28th, and Margaret has chaired it for nineteen years.

Sixty women in velvet and pearls sat at round tables with poinsettias on every one.

I walked in at ten past noon in a navy dress I had bought that morning with Pinegate's card.

Joy was home with a sitter who played cards with her.

The hostess at the door looked at her list and then at me.

"Mrs. Thayer, I'm afraid the table is full."

"I'm a member," I said. "Colin put me on the roll the year we were married."

"Of course." She stepped aside, and her face went red.

Margaret stood at the lectern at the far end of the room with a microphone in her hand.

Colin sat at the head table beside her.

Brandy sat on Colin's other side, in a cream wool dress with a gold ring on her left hand.

They were all smiling.

"And so I'd like to thank every one of you," Margaret was saying, "for being here in a hard year. Our family has been tested. We are about to be blessed."

A few women clapped.

I walked straight down the center aisle between the tables.

The clapping stopped one table at a time.

"Laurel," Margaret said into the microphone. "This is a private luncheon."

"It's a members' luncheon," I said. "I'm a member."

"Colin," she said. "Please."

Colin half stood and sat down again.

I took my phone out of my purse.

"Eighteen days ago," I said, "Colin's phone called mine from his pocket while he was in his car. It left a voicemail. I didn't listen to it until this week."

"Laurel, don't do this," Brandy said.

"Margaret," I said. "May I borrow your microphone?"

She did not hand it over.

So I walked to the side of the stage, where a young man from the sound company was holding a cable.

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