A Happy Family Without Me novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Table Twelve

Fenella's POV

Poppy told me about the envelope at bedtime, in four flat sentences, and I filed it with everything else.

On Thursday, the tall gray man from Garner's company was waiting in the school parking lot.

He stood beside a dark sedan in a charcoal overcoat, with his reading glasses folded in his breast pocket.

"Mrs. Eberhardt," he said. "Ten minutes."

I kept my lanyard on and stayed where the crossing guard could see me.

"Garner brought me a deposit slip on Monday," he said. "Forty-one thousand, First Lakes Savings. I let his name stay on the program."

"I haven't seen any deposit."

"Neither have I. I've seen a slip."

He took a folded printout from his coat.

"The organizer sent me the seating chart this morning. Table one reads Mr. Garner Waldegrave and Mrs. Waldegrave. Mrs. Waldegrave called to ask for a gluten-free meal and a chair with arm rests, because she's expecting."

My jaw went tight.

"I'm Mrs. Waldegrave," I said. "On paper."

"I know who you are. That is why I didn't reply to the organizer, and why I'd like you in that room."

He handed me a cream-colored ticket.

Table twelve. It was in the back of the ballroom, by the doors, with a clear line to the stage.

"You'll want to bring someone," he said.

"I will."

"Good. Next Friday, seven o'clock. Wear something you can walk in."

He got into the sedan and drove off.

That night Maeve took Poppy for a movie and a sleepover, with a huge bag of popcorn.

"Don't sit up reading the dinner menu," she said at my door. "Go do something dumb."

At nine I crossed the street with the ticket in my hand.

I had never been inside Torsten's house.

He opened the door in a gray sweatshirt with sawdust on the cuffs, and looked at my face, and stepped back to let me in.

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