Chapter 10: Funds Later Deposited

Eleven weeks later I walked into the Dayton Country Club in a green dress with Rafe beside me.

Hazel was fourteen weeks old and asleep at the hotel with the nanny.

I had fed her at six and I would be home by ten.

Rafe held the door.

"I paid for the tickets," he said.

"And I sent you two hundred dollars from my own account at four o'clock," I said. "Check your phone."

He checked it.

"You sent two hundred and one."

"The extra dollar is the tax."

He put the phone away in his jacket and looked at the ceiling.

It was the annual dinner of Keystone Lending, with two hundred guests and a jazz trio.

A screen above the stage read Thirty Years of Building Dreams.

Tarrant Freight ran a home-loan program for its nine thousand drivers.

Keystone serviced every one of those mortgages, and the renewal was on my desk for signature on Friday.

The president of Keystone met us at the door.

He was a stout, careful man, and he took my hand in both of his.

"Mrs. Harlan. I've wanted to meet you since your board announced the new chair. Welcome."

"Thank you for having us."

"Please, sit with us. Table one."

I felt a hundred heads turn as I crossed the room.

By then Dean's post had been shared eleven thousand times.

In Dayton, a woman who walks out on a newborn is not forgiven by anyone.

I walked slowly and kept my chin level.

The president steered us to a table near the stage with a white cloth and a floral centerpiece.

Kelsey Roan was already there.

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