The Day My Family Left Me to Die novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Gala

"You'll get out," Chad said. "Your Dr. Penfield will see to that. She's very good at standing up for strays now."

He tapped the folder.

"But the charge stays open. A judge will want you nowhere near the family until it's heard. That's after the gala." He smiled. "I only want one thing from you, and then I'll have it dropped."

I stared at him and gave him nothing.

"Millicent kept a drive," Chad said. "She told Blythe. Where is it?"

I looked at the empty table.

He sat back and laughed under his breath.

"You can't even tell me to go to hell," he said. "That's the best part."

He knocked on the door for the guard, and left.

My mother posted the bond at four and sat in the car outside the jail with her hands at ten and two, without starting the engine.

She didn't say anything.

She reached across the seat and held my wrist the whole way home.

The gala was nine days later.

The Lakeview Ballroom held forty round tables in white linen, with lilies in every centerpiece.

They had put my picture on an easel by the stage.

It was the one from the vet clinic, where I was laughing and holding a three-legged beagle.

Under it, in brass: MILLICENT PENFIELD, BELOVED DAUGHTER AND SISTER. The Millicent Penfield Memorial Gala for the Penfield Family Clinic Fund.

They'd put my name on the one thing Chad had been robbing.

I sat at table one between my mother and my brother, wearing the silver ring.

The black dress was Heidi's, and it was an inch too short.

My mother had not let go of my hand since the elevator.

The charge was still open.

My bond said I could not go near the Penfield home or the Penfield funds.

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