Chapter 10: One Suitcase

"Let go of my wrist, Colin," I said.

He did not let go. The relatives had turned from my father on the floor to look at us.

"You humiliated my family," he said. "My mother is standing right there."

"Your mother is standing next to the woman who wanted you drugged."

"I'm saying this was between us! You could have told me Thursday."

"And you could have told me there was no maintenance notice."

His face changed.

"That was a joke," he said. "You know it was a joke."

"At 11:31 you locked the tower yourself, from your own phone, with my line open and my voice in your ear."

Sixty people watched him open his mouth and find nothing in it.

I pulled off my engagement ring.

It had been slipping all week, because I had stopped eating.

I put it in his palm and closed his fingers over it.

"I'm not angry," I said. "I want you to understand that. I'm just done."

"Tara, wait. Where are you going?"

"To the airport."

"You're not serious."

"My flight leaves at 11:40," I said. "You're welcome to keep the table."

His grip finally slackened.

Behind him, my mother had dropped to her knees by my father and was shouting for someone to call an ambulance.

The old trustee was already on his phone, and in the next minute I heard the sirens come up the road.

Dani stood by the piano with her hands over her mouth.

She looked from face to face, and nobody would look back.

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