Chapter 19: The Firm Dinner

On Monday I had changed my will at a lawyer's kitchen table in Rockport, with Frances for a witness.

By Saturday there was nothing in it that belonged to Declan.

The Harborview was a brick hotel on the Portland waterfront, with a ballroom on the second floor and a doorman in a long coat.

Jude parked across the street and turned off the engine.

"I'll be here," he said.

"You said you wouldn't come in."

"I'm not coming in. I'm sitting here, in case."

I kissed him once, quickly, in the dark of the cab.

Joelle was already on the sidewalk, in a navy maternity dress with her auburn bob combed flat and her hands shaking.

"Four months," she said, as we crossed the lobby. "Everybody will see."

"Good."

We took the stairs.

The ballroom was warm and gold, with round tables and a string of white lights.

About sixty people stood with drinks in their hands.

At the head table, under a banner that said Congratulations, sat a white-haired man in a tuxedo and Declan beside him in a dark suit.

Declan was laughing at something the white-haired man had said.

He looked up and saw me in the doorway.

The laugh did not stop at once, and it took a second for his face to understand.

I walked down the middle of the room.

Heads turned as we went, and the talk thinned out and went quiet.

Joelle was half a step behind me.

"Good evening," I said, to the white-haired man. "I'm Hanna Vesey. I'm sorry to interrupt."

"Mrs. Vesey." He stood, with a puzzled smile. "Declan told us you weren't well enough to come."

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