Four Hundred Guests Watched Him Cheat, So I Took Everything He Had novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Midnight

Harlan gives Margo until midnight to post an apology or Ellen goes to the county ward; Margo records him in front of a nurse, and Ellen whispers that she wants out.

I walked into St. Brendan's at 4:10 in my wedding dress.

The woman at the front desk looked at me, then at her phone, then at me again.

She had already seen it.

"Fourth floor," she said, and did not ask for my name.

I took the elevator with a man in scrubs who studied the ceiling the whole way up.

My mother's door was open.

Ellen lay propped against two pillows with the tablet in her lap and a clear tube taped to the back of her hand.

She looked smaller than she had on Thursday.

"Baby," she said, and her voice was thin and cracked.

I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, and twelve pounds of silk went everywhere.

"Did you see all of it?" I asked.

"Every minute." She touched my cheek. "I'm so sorry, Margo."

"You told me to go up and get my veil."

"Yes." She closed her eyes. "I did."

I waited for her to say more, and she did not.

I decided it was the medicine, and I kept hold of her hand.

Down the hall a cart rattled past, and neither of us spoke until it was gone.

"Mom, I made a speech."

"I heard it." Her mouth moved. "The salmon was a nice touch."

I laughed once, and it came out wet.

At 4:40 a knock came on the open door.

Hoyt stood in the hall with his sleeves rolled and a small brown envelope in his hand.

He had changed out of the black shirt into a gray one, and he was out of breath from the stairs.

"I'm not here to be in the way," he said. "Ellen asked me to bring you this."

He held out the envelope.

I tipped it, and the camera's memory card slid into my palm.

"You didn't take it," he said. "So I did. It has everything since noon."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet." He glanced at the bed. "Mrs. Fenn, do you want me to stay?"

"Not tonight, dear," Ellen said. "Go and eat something."

He nodded and left.

I pushed the card into the bodice of my dress, because I had no pockets.

At 6:30 the door opened again without a knock.

Harlan came in first, still in his gray suit, with his phone in his hand.

Blair came behind him in jeans and a white sweater, her face scrubbed clean.

She had put on a small gold cross.

"Margo," Harlan said. "Let's be adults."

I stood up.

"Get out of my mother's room."

"It's my wife's room." He said it gently, and that was the worst part. "I pay for it. I sign for it. I decide who stays in it."

Blair put a hand over her mouth.

"We were going to tell you," she said. "It just happened."

"In my dressing room," I said. "With my camera on."

A nurse had stopped in the doorway with a clipboard.

Harlan saw her, and his voice dropped into the one he used for ribbon cuttings.

"Here is what will happen," he said. "You will post a video tonight. You will say you were overwhelmed, that you regret the speech, and that the family is working through it."

"No."

"By midnight. Or Ellen's room is cancelled and she is moved to the county ward at nine tomorrow morning."

Nobody in the room moved.

I took my phone out of my sleeve, where I had carried it down the staircase, and held it up.

The red recording dot had been on since the elevator.

"Say it once more," I said. "For the nurse."

Harlan looked at the phone.

Then he looked at the nurse, and for the first time that day he smiled too late.

"I said what is best for the family."

"You said midnight," the nurse said quietly. "And the county ward."

She did not leave the doorway.

"Sir," she added, "room assignments here are made by the care team. Not by donors."

Harlan's neck went red above his collar.

"I give this hospital a wing."

"Then the hospital can decide what your wing is worth to it," I said.

Blair stepped forward, her eyes bright.

"Margo, you're making this uglier than it needs to be."

"I made it exactly as ugly as it was."

She flinched.

It was the first time I had ever seen her do it.

Harlan took her elbow and turned her toward the door.

"Midnight," he said again, and the two of them left.

The nurse followed, and she looked back at me once and nodded.

I sat down on the bed. My hands were shaking now that there was no one to watch them.

My mother's fingers closed around my wrist.

They were much stronger than they should have been.

"Don't apologize," she whispered. "Not to him. Not tonight, not ever."

"Mom."

"Get me out of here, Margo."

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