Chapter 14: The Toast Cards

I lasted only a moment in the booth.

Cynthia did not try to stop me.

She stayed where she was, with her hands around a glass she had not touched.

The private dining room was at the end of the corridor, with its double doors propped open.

I stopped one step short of the threshold.

Hannah had told me to stay out, and I meant to give her that much.

Thirty people sat at a long table under chandeliers, with a wedding cake in a box at one end.

Cedric's parents were on the left, and the groomsmen were beside them with their ties loosened.

Russell sat at the head of the table in his charcoal suit.

Hannah stood a few feet from him, in her socks, with the dinner spoon still in her hand.

"I'm sorry to stop dessert," she said.

Nobody spoke.

"I need to ask my father something, and I need to ask it here."

"Sweetheart," Russell said, "let's go next door."

"No."

He smiled for the room.

"Of course," he said. "Ask."

"Did your father pay my birth mother sixty thousand dollars to leave when I was four months old?"

I watched his face.

It did not change.

That was the worst thing about Russell, always.

He had a face that could take a blow and give back nothing.

"Where did you hear that?" he said gently.

"Answer it."

"Hannah, you've had a very hard few weeks."

"Did he pay her?"

"Your mother has not been herself since the walk-through."

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