When Doom Found Violet novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Papers

Violet's POV

The ballroom at the Riverview Hotel was lit gold, and three hundred people in good clothes were eating chicken.

Tackett & Associates Insurance was celebrating twenty-five years.

I knew because I had ironed Kent's shirt for this party every year for three years.

Now I stood in the doorway in a red dress Doc's niece had lent me, with my left arm in a black sling and a manila envelope in my right hand.

Doom was behind me, filling most of the hallway.

"I'll stay at the door," he said.

"You'll scare the coworkers."

"That's the idea."

"Not yet," I said. "I want them to see him first."

Two prospects in clean shirts had taken the side exits already.

Nobody in the room had noticed them, which was the point.

I walked in alone.

Kent was at the head table with his father and the company owner.

Marcy sat on his other side, in the purple dress from my wedding, and her hand rested on his knee.

She had brought her baby story to his work party.

My heart was pounding, but my feet kept moving.

The owner stood up and tapped his glass.

"Before dessert, I'd like to honor the man who sold more policies this year than anyone in our history. Kent Tackett, come up here."

The room applauded.

Kent rose with a modest smile and buttoned his jacket, and I saw the exact moment he spotted me.

His smile froze in place.

He looked at the sling.

He looked at the dress.

Then he looked at the dark shape in the doorway behind me, and his face went white.

He had a split lip under the makeup, and a yellow bruise on his jaw.

"Vi," he said, and the microphone caught it. "Baby, what are you doing here?"

"Congratulating you," I said.

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