She Kept the Trash, I Kept the Crown novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: What Daphne Thought
The paramedics reached us as I took the microphone off its stand.
One of them tried to put an oxygen mask on my face, and I held it away for a moment.
"Let me do this first," I said. "Then I'll lie down for you. I promise."
Kellan took my elbow.
He did not argue.
He supported me as we crossed to the lectern, past the chandelier and the long gold curtain, and he stood behind me with one hand at my back.
Four hundred faces looked up.
Daphne was still in her chair.
She had stopped moving.
Her thoughts had not.
"My name is Leonie Hartwell," I said into the microphone. My voice came out raw. "I can hear what people think. I have since the day my sister chose the Wheelocks, and she is the only person in this room who will know why I'm telling you."
Someone laughed, shortly and uneasily.
"I don't expect you to believe me," I said. "So I'll tell you what my sister is thinking right now, and you can watch her face."
I turned my head.
"The lipstick in your clutch is not a lipstick, Daphne. It's a small silver tube of hand cream. Peanut oil. You bought it Tuesday."
She flinched.
"It's in the left pocket, under the handkerchief."
Felix took one step and slid two fingers into the clutch.
He came out with a small silver tube, and he held it up.
A low sound went through the ballroom.
"You paid a caterer two hundred dollars in an envelope," I said. "You wore navy. You told him it was a prank."
"Stop," Daphne said. It was not a loud word.
"You're thinking he'll never say it. You're wrong. He's said it to himself every night since."
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