They Threw Me Away at Twelve, So I Came Home Undefeated novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Black Tie

"Eldon Thornquist," the man in the gray suit said again. "I'm a detective with the state police. You are under arrest for fraud, for falsifying a death record, and for child abandonment."

My father stood in the doorway with his hand on the brass handle.

"This is absurd," he said.

"Sir, turn around."

"I am a candidate for the state senate."

"Not tonight you aren't."

An officer took my father's wrist.

My father pulled it back, and the second officer caught the other one.

The cuffs closed with a small flat click that carried across the silent ballroom.

I walked up to him.

Every phone in the room followed me.

He stood in his black tie with his hands locked behind him.

For the first time in my life he had no voice at all.

"You were going to let me stay dead," I said.

He lifted his eyes.

Something ugly came up in them.

I had seen it once before, at a photo shoot, when I was twelve and crying in a dress that did not fit.

He leaned close to my ear while the detective was reading him his rights.

"You were always an embarrassment," my father said, very low. "I should have done it sooner."

I stepped back.

"Say that louder."

He smiled.

"Say it louder, Dad. There's a microphone on the head table. It's been on all night."

He turned his head.

On the white cloth stood the little black microphone he had set out for his toast.

Its red light was on.

The ballroom had heard every word.

A donor in the second row stood up. "Eldon," he said hoarsely, "what did you say to that child?"

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