Chapter 19: The Signing

Hallie's POV

The boardroom of the Harbor Point Savings Bank had a table forty feet long, and every seat at it was full.

I came in at five past ten with my mother's arm through mine.

The black camera case hung from my free hand.

Nobody had stopped us in the lobby.

The guard had watched Mason's face on a phone that morning, like everyone in town.

He had held the door.

Wesley's father sat at the head of the table in a navy suit with a pen in front of him.

Wesley sat on his right, gray and shaved, with his hands folded.

He looked at me and did not blink.

"Hallie," his father said, and rose with a warm smile. "My dear. You came."

"I said I would."

"Everyone, this is my daughter-in-law. She has had a very difficult week."

He gestured at the chair beside him.

"Please sit. We were about to begin."

"I'm not signing anything."

The smile did not move.

"Of course. We'll all take a moment."

"I'd like the board to take it," I said, "for something else."

I set the camera case on the table.

At the far end, a gray-haired woman in a gray suit put down her cup.

"Mrs. Langford," she said. "I'm the chairman of this board."

"Yes."

"I watched the dock this morning, like half the county." She looked at the camera. "Is that the film?"

"It is."

"Hallie," Wesley said. His voice cracked. "Baby, please. You're not well."

"Nobody here thinks I'm not well," I said. "They think I'm late."

A man at the middle of the table laughed once, and stopped.

"There is a projector in the corner," the chairman said. "Bring her the cable."

Wesley's father stood up.

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