He Demanded I Deny His Daughter, So I Walked Away novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: The Dock
By nightfall someone had put the luncheon online.
Silvan's phone lit up on the dock rail, and then mine, one buzz after another.
I sat at the end of the boards with my navy dress hiked over my knees and my feet hanging above the black water.
The video had two hundred thousand views already.
Poppy was running across the ballroom, with her braids flying.
You could hear her say it, clear as a bell.
"Mommy!"
Under it, a stranger had typed: "That child knows exactly who her mother is."
I put the phone face down on the planks.
"Adelaide's people posted a statement," Silvan said, behind me. "It calls you a troubled former employee. It says the family is protecting a vulnerable child."
"Of course it does."
"The comments are eating it alive."
"Good."
He came and sat down on the boards beside me, a careful foot away, and set two beers between us.
I didn't pick mine up.
The Sound went dark and quiet.
"You said you were waiting to see which one I was," I said.
"I did."
"You stood at the back of that lawn for the whole thing."
"I did."
"I looked at the back row when Rhett said it. I looked for any face on that lawn that was on my side." I turned to him. "You didn't move, Silvan. You watched a six-year-old cry and you didn't take one step."
He stared at the water.
"I thought if I stepped in, you'd sign," he said. "You'd take the way out I gave you. I wanted to see you choose with nobody holding the door."
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