Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Jeweler

"I did take a plea," I said.

My voice carried farther than I meant it to.

Two hundred faces turned from Constance to me.

"I took it in a county courtroom, nineteen years old, with a lawyer you paid for," I said. "He told me it was that or three years. I took it because I was alone."

Nobody moved.

"I'm not alone tonight," I said. "That's all I came to say."

I stepped back to Anthony's side.

His hand found the small of my back and rested there, warm and steady, and I leaned into it, in front of everyone, for one second.

"Doctor," Constance called toward the foyer, in a voice gone flat. "I believe you're next."

The surgeon came across the floor with his phone still in his fist.

He did not go to the stage.

He walked to the table where Constance had left her handbag, a dark green clutch with a gold clasp.

He stopped three feet from it.

"At nine o'clock I went upstairs for an ice pack," he said. "Your door was open, and you were at the vanity. You put an empty velvet case into that bag."

Constance's gloved hand moved toward the clutch and stopped.

"This one," said the surgeon. "Green, gold clasp. I thought it was beautiful. I remember thinking it matched the necklace."

"That's absurd. I have a dozen bags."

"You carried this one tonight on purpose," the surgeon said. "You can't leave it alone. You've touched it six times since I walked in."

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