My First Love Returned, His Stand-In Begged Me to Stay novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Who Read to Me

The VanAlen Family Foundation held its gala in the ballroom of the Drake, under three chandeliers, with three hundred guests in black tie.

I wore a green dress and my mother's earrings.

I did not wear a ring.

In my clutch, folded in four, were a volunteer sign-in sheet and a yellow sticky note.

Bree was beside me in a borrowed gown with her phone in her fist.

"Say the word," she said, "and I film everything."

"Not yet."

"Say the word and I film it from a better angle."

I almost smiled.

The room was loud with glasses and money.

Waiters moved through it with trays of champagne.

At the far end, on a low stage, Constance stood at a podium in silver silk with a diamond at her throat.

Monty stood beside her in a black tuxedo, with his hands behind his back.

He looked for me in the crowd, found me, and his whole face lit.

Then it dimmed, because he'd seen my left hand.

Across the ballroom, by the door to the terrace, Kip stood alone in a gray suit.

He wasn't smiling. He hadn't come to be social.

He found me too, and he nodded once.

I didn't know what that nod meant.

I thought it might mean goodbye.

Constance tapped the microphone.

"Friends," she said warmly. "Thank you for coming. Tonight we honor the foundation's thirty years of work, and I'm delighted to say it's also my son's birthday."

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