Three, Two, One, I'm Gone novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Anyone Can Call It

The guests pulled back until a circle of bare floor opened in the middle of the ballroom.

A hundred and twenty phones came out.

Opal stayed in her gold chair with her cane across her knees.

"Three players," she said. "Delia, Paige, and my other grandson, if he will stand up."

Grant stood.

He walked to the circle with his shoulders bent, and he did not look at Paige or me.

"Stakes," said Opal. "A game with no stakes is a pastime. Who names them?"

"I do," Paige said at once.

She stepped into the center in her white dress and turned slowly, so the room could see her.

"If Delia moves first, she walks out of this house, this family, her job and this city tonight," she said. "She never comes back."

A cousin gasped.

Wade started to stand.

I put my hand flat on his sleeve, and he stopped.

"And if Paige moves first?" Opal asked.

"I won't," Paige said.

"Then it costs you nothing to say what it would cost."

Paige hesitated.

"Fine. If I move first, I give back the necklace."

"And the charm," I said. "And the fourteen thousand, and my mother's other things."

"Fine."

"And you tell this room the truth. Standing up. About every forfeit and every lie."

I looked around the circle.

"That goes for whoever loses," I said. "Me included. The loser tells it."

Paige laughed.

"You'd bet on that?"

"I'd bet my badge and my city on it," I said. "You already did."

"Agreed," said Opal. "Mind you, I am the judge, and I do not like to be fooled. Now. Who calls?"

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