Taken in My Sleep by My Stepfather David and His Friends novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Sign After the Vows

Nobody stopped Garson.

He walked to the DJ's table at the side of the tent, the one with the speakers stacked on poles, and held up his hand to the young man behind it.

The young man looked at the big stranger crossing his lawn and took off his headphones.

"Cable," Garson said.

He plugged his phone in and pressed play.

Clarence's voice came out over the roses, round and warm and a little amused.

"After the vows, before the cake. People are loose by then, and nobody watches the family table."

Three hundred people went absolutely still.

"Sign it, and I'll delete my copy while you watch. You'll see me do it."

My own voice answered from the speakers, careful and flat.

"You'll delete it."

"I give you my word."

Clarence turned to the best man.

"Turn that off," he said.

The best man didn't move.

The recording rolled on.

"Then three hundred people hear what you really want. And they'll look at your stepfather, and they'll wonder what four men do with a woman for three days."

Somebody in the third row said, "Oh my God."

Garson stopped it there.

He unplugged his phone and turned around, and stood at the side of the tent with his hands at his sides.

The lawn was silent except for a bird in the roses.

Clarence's mother got to her feet.

Her navy dress was rigid with starch, and the leather folder slid from her lap and fell open on the grass.

My ring rolled out of it across the lawn and stopped against a gold chair leg.

"That was obtained illegally," she said clearly. "That is a private call."

"You can tell the guests how you'd like it handled," I said.

I bent and picked up the folder.

The pages were fanned out in the wind, and I held the first one up to the people nearest me.

"This is a deed," I said. "My mother left me her cabin on Loon Lake. This gives it to the Ellison family trust, as a wedding gift. I was supposed to sign it after the vows, at the family table, when nobody was watching."

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