Chapter 20: Gala Night

Dad stood under the half-finished mezzanine with his hat in his hands.

He looked small in the empty lobby.

"You've seen it," he said, before I reached him. He held up his phone with the headline on it.

"Janie called a reporter last night."

"I know. Your mother called me at five." He swallowed. "I'm not here to stop it."

"Then why?"

"Come here."

He led me across the marble to the foot of the north stair.

The oak treads were finished. The first one gleamed, and beside the newel post, set into the wall, was a bronze plate the size of a book.

It was covered with a dust sheet.

He pulled it off.

It read: THE NORTH STAIR. DESIGNED BY SASHA KLINGENBERG.

"I had it cast on Monday," he said. "I should have had it cast the day you drew it."

I looked at the letters.

I had a hundred things to say, and none of them would come.

"I'm going to stand up at the gala," Dad said. "I'm going to say it myself, in front of everyone, before she does."

"I don't want you to say anything for me. I don't want you to stop me, either."

"I can't promise that."

"I'm not asking for a promise." His voice cracked. "I'm asking you to hear it once, as it is. After that, you can do as you like with me."

I put my hand on the cold bronze and didn't answer.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Brother Gave Her My Place, So I Stopped Coming Home from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.