Chapter 4: Two Hundred Thousand

Nobody in the ballroom moved.

Somebody's fork clinked against a plate.

I stood in the white light with my arms at my sides and couldn't feel my feet.

"Turn that off," Louise snapped at the spotlight booth.

It didn't turn off.

Sabrina kept smiling on the stage.

"It's fine," she said into the microphone. "We're all adults. She's welcome to stay for dessert."

A woman at the table next to me pulled her purse closer to her chair.

Across the room, Clifford had gone completely still.

The man with the cane said something to him.

He didn't answer.

He put his glass down on a waiter's tray without looking at it, and he started walking.

The crowd opened for him.

I watched him come the whole way.

Every step, I told myself to leave.

Every step, I stayed.

He stopped an arm's length from me.

Up close, I could see a small scar on his chin I didn't know about.

I could see he hadn't been sleeping.

"Coll," he said.

Just my name.

The light was still on us.

"Hi," I said.

He looked at my face.

He looked at the dress hanging off my shoulders.

At the safety pins at my waist, and the scarf Louise had wrapped twice around my neck.

Something moved behind his eyes.

Then it closed.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see you."

"You called me Wednesday," he said. "Out of nowhere. After five years."

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