Chapter 9: The Launch

Cora's POV

The roof of Lowry Tower had a hundred and fifty guests, a champagne wall and a stage with a screen the size of a garage door.

Tanya stood on the stage in white, holding a bottle of her own face cream up to the cameras.

"Skin is a story," she was saying. "And mine is about coming back."

I stood at the back beside Dani, who wore a green dress and a lanyard that said GUEST in my handwriting.

Imogen stood on my other side.

"The sponsors are at the front," she whispered. "The three in dark blue are the skincare company. The woman in the red jacket is the retail buyer."

"You numbered them."

"I'm a professional."

Beckett stood at the far side of the roof, in the shadow of a heater.

I had asked him to wait there.

I had not told him why, and he had not asked.

The hospital's patient desk had left me a message that morning.

A Mr. Lowry had called about page two, and the charge nurse had told him only I could release it.

I had read it once in the elevator and put the phone away.

He had been told to wait for me, and he was waiting.

That was a thing I would have to answer after the roof, not before.

On the stage, Tanya smiled into a camera.

"I want to thank everyone who stood by me through a very dark time," she said. "Some people use pain to get paid. I use it to grow."

A few guests clapped.

A man near me wiped his eyes.

I took out my phone, sent a single word to the sound booth, and walked up the center aisle with my cane.

The aisle was white carpet, and every step of it was audible.

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