The Billionaire Regretted Losing His Invisible Wife novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Playback

I squeezed Stuart's hand twice, the way we had agreed in the car.

He stood up from his chair, and the whole ballroom saw him do it.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Verplanck," he said, loudly enough to reach the stage without a microphone. "I'll correct that announcement myself."

Rosalind's smile stayed on her face.

"Stuart, sit down. This is a happy night."

"It will be."

He walked to the stage with his hand on my back.

I climbed the three steps beside him, slowly, with the nurse close behind.

Rosalind did not move from the podium, so Stuart reached past her and took the microphone out of her hand.

"I am not engaged," he said.

The room stopped murmuring.

"I am a married man. For three years my wife sat at the other end of my table, and I never once asked her a question."

He looked at me.

"On a night in January, in front of fourteen people, she told me she was carrying my children. I called her a liar. Within the hour she had been thrown down the stairs of my home."

Nobody moved.

"You have all seen a video that says she jumped. Tonight you will see the rest of it."

He nodded at the back of the room.

The lights dropped.

On the huge screen above the stage, a hallway appeared, white and silent, with a grey folder in a woman's hand.

Celia walked into the frame holding it.

She opened it at the hall table.

She took one page from her handbag and put it in place of the one inside.

Four hundred people watched her smooth her hair and smile at the empty hall.

Then the picture jumped to the top of the white stairs.

I did not look at the screen.

I had no need to.

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