Chapter 21: Signed

The tunnel under Dunning Arena was lit with phone screens.

Every camera in the building had followed the Dunnings off the ice.

Lena stood at the mouth of the tunnel with Beck's hand in hers and watched them come through.

Donald walked first, grey-faced, between two men from the board.

Amber came behind him in the long white coat, with her mascara in streaks.

She saw Lena and stopped.

"Look at you," Amber said. "You did it. You and your captain."

"I didn't write your letter."

"You ruined my family."

"Your father put a clause in a contract so you could keep a man," Lena said. "I only read it out loud."

"Stanton would have loved me."

"He loved the contract."

Amber's face twisted.

She lunged, with both hands out and her nails open.

Beck stepped in front of Lena.

He didn't touch Amber.

He simply stood there, and Amber's hands hit his chest and slid off the jersey.

A security guard took her by the elbow.

"Ms. Dunning. This way, please."

"Get your hands off me! I'm the vice president!"

"You were," the guard said, not unkindly. "Until the board voted."

She was pulled down the corridor, still shouting.

Every phone in the tunnel followed her.

Stanton had been standing against the wall the whole time, in the number twelve jersey with the sleeve torn.

He was holding his phone.

"The team released me," he said, to no one. "Just now. By text."

"They'll want the jersey back," Beck said.

Stanton looked up.

Lena thought for a moment that he would cry.

Then he saw her face, and he looked away.

He walked past without a word.

On Sunday morning, at nine o'clock, Lena drove to Pine Street with Susanna and a woman in a navy coat who was Susanna's cousin and a lawyer.

The house was grey in the early light, with its porch swing hanging crooked.

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