Skipped Thanksgiving Because of My Family's Favoritism novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Blanket

Daphne stood alone at the lobby glass at seven that evening.

She had a duffel bag, a bus ticket stub in her fist, and a ponytail that had come half undone.

Ingrid had stayed upstairs, as I'd asked.

The director stood twenty feet behind me, and he didn't pretend to be doing anything else.

"Elliot," Daphne said.

I stopped an arm's length away.

"You came without Felix."

"I came without anyone. My mother told me not to, and I got on the bus anyway."

"Why?"

"Because Ingrid texted me one line before she left," Daphne said. "She wrote, I think the note is fake, and I want to be wrong."

Her voice cracked on the last word.

"She didn't say where she was going. There was only one place she could be."

"I read the note again on the bus. The clinic's name is spelled two different ways on the same page."

"Ingrid told you that?"

"No. I saw it myself. I looked in May, and I never checked the spelling or the letterhead."

I said nothing.

"I can't undo it," she said. "I know that. I'm not here to undo it."

"Then say what you're here for."

She opened the duffel and took out a small velvet pouch.

She held it out through the gap in the counter.

I knew the shape before I opened it.

It was Maxine's first medal, the one Maxine had given me at twelve to keep safe.

The ribbon was frayed.

A strip of masking tape was stuck to the back, and on the tape someone had written FELIX in black marker.

"Where was it?"

"In a box in Felix's closet," Daphne said. "Maxine threw it in a junk box after you gave it back. Felix took it out and taped his name on it. He told Maxine he'd found it and wanted to keep it for her."

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