The Bride He Replaced novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Luncheon

Hannah's POV

Duncan told me everything at Bea's kitchen table, and I did not interrupt once.

When he reached the part about two hundred thousand dollars in cash, Bea set down her spoon.

"Cash," she said. "In a hatbox, I bet."

"She didn't say."

"It's always a hatbox."

I looked at the yellow cloth and at the line of the table's edge.

"Marguerite sat on my sofa on the wedding day and told me not to make a scene," I said.

"She knew the whole time that Camilla's wedding was nothing."

"She wanted it to be nothing that looked like something," Duncan said. "A loud wedding, and you the ex who crashed it."

"And page four to finish me off."

"Yes."

"Where is she today?"

He checked his phone.

"The lake hotel. She has the benefit committee to lunch every Friday. Twenty women, on the terrace."

"Twenty women who will repeat anything I say by dinner."

He looked at me.

"You promised to leave it to me," I said. "I'm telling you I'm going."

"I'm not stopping you."

"I know you're not." I stood up and found my coat. "I wanted you to hear that I knew."

The terrace at the lake hotel looked over the water.

There was a long table set for twenty, with white cloths.

A string quartet stopped playing when I came out of the French doors.

I wore a plain navy maternity dress and held Bea's arm.

Marguerite sat at the head of the table in grey silk.

She did not stand.

"Hannah," she said. "How nice to see you looking well."

Twenty heads turned.

I knew the faces from the ballroom and the clip that had gone round the city.

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