He Signed His Divorce Without Reading It, Now He Kneels novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Gala

The Meridian Prize gala filled the grand ballroom of a New York hotel.

Six hundred people sat at round tables under three crystal chandeliers.

I wore a dark green dress, and Alasdair wore the one suit he owned.

He walked on stage with me.

I hadn't asked him to. He just stood up when my name was read, and held out his arm, and I took it.

Row one was directly below us.

I had seen them from the wings.

Lorna sat in black silk at the center of Table One, with Iris beside her in pale blue.

Colin sat at the end in his best tuxedo.

None of them had known I was on the program.

When the announcer said Dr. Genevieve Wrenfield, Colin's face went white.

I walked across the stage to the lectern.

The foundation's chair put a glass trophy in my hands. It was heavier than it looked.

"Dr. Wrenfield, on behalf of the committee," she said, "thank you for giving us the first real treatment for a disease we have been losing to for fifty years."

The room rose, all six hundred of them, and the applause went on and on.

I waited until it quieted.

"I'm not supposed to be here," I said into the microphone. "I was a chemist who stopped working to take care of people. I'm very good at that, it turns out."

A few people laughed softly.

"This drug began in a bedroom in the suburbs, with a man named Franklin who was dying and wouldn't let me stop asking questions."

I looked at Table One, and not at anyone in particular.

"He's the reason twelve people are sitting at their kitchen tables tonight with clear scans."

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