Three Breakdowns A Year Was All I Was Allowed novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Special Guest

Four hundred chairs were set out in the reading room, and every one of them was full.

Two deputies waited in the back hall with a form that had my name on it.

I stood behind a curtain at the side of the stage, in the green dress I had worn to my own wedding rehearsal, with the yellow hat in my coat pocket.

I had decided about the hat on the drive over.

It was not his to hand me.

It was mine to bring.

Through the gap I could see the front row, where three women sat with their coats on their knees.

I could see Shanna in the twelfth row, and Luther beside her with both hands flat on his thighs.

He looked up, found the curtain, and did not wave.

Christian went to the podium to a long, warm round of applause.

"Thank you," he said. "Thank you. Dr. Hellstrom could not be with us tonight, and I want you to know she is in our thoughts."

An empty chair sat on the stage beside the stool.

"I'm not going to talk long," Christian said. "The book will do that. But I want to begin with the woman who made it possible. She is my wife, and she is my proof. Emmy?"

I walked out.

The lights were white and hot, and a red light on a camera at the back of the room blinked once.

Christian took my hand, and his was dry and cool.

He sat me on the stool and put a galley into my lap, open at page forty-one.

"Take your time," he murmured. "Just read it the way we practiced."

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