Chapter 22: What She Had Left

"Go ahead," said a voice from table nine.

A woman in a plain gray blazer got to her feet.

I knew her.

She was the officer who had pulled my hallway footage the morning Victoria lied about her bruise.

Ross had called her on Tuesday and asked her to come to dinner.

She walked to the head table with her badge in her hand, and a younger officer came up behind her.

"We're listening, Miss Doherty," she said to Victoria. "What did June do?"

Victoria looked from one face to the next.

"She's sleeping with him," she said. "With the man who's been stalking me."

"She hid him in her apartment while he was on bail."

"She's been lying to every one of you."

Nobody gasped.

A man at the back said, "So?"

The officer almost smiled.

"Miss Doherty, your order is against Mr. Stender coming near you."

"It says nothing about who he spends the night with."

"But she."

"Is a grown woman. Whose hallway camera has already told me the truth about your bruise."

"That's," said Victoria, and stopped.

I watched her search the room for one friendly face.

My aunt looked at the table.

The pastor looked at his hands.

The only person who looked at her at all was Kent.

He did it very slowly.

"Kent," she said. "Tell them it isn't true."

He stood up.

His voice shook, and he said it anyway.

"I found the box in your bathroom, Vic. The seal was on it."

A murmur ran around the hall.

"That isn't, I was going to."

"There was never a baby," Kent said.

"You told me there was, and you told my mother, and you told this whole church."

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