Chapter 21: Back Row

Rafe's POV

I stood in the last row of the Harbor Club ballroom.

It was where I had stood on the day she walked out of it.

It was the same room, with the same pale chairs.

This time the chairs were pulled around round tables, and every one of them was full.

The Cranmer Foundation gala had run for forty years.

The Cranmers had always sat at a front table by themselves.

Cecelia sat at a table of nurses near the front, in the green dress from the partners' party.

Around her neck were her mother's pearls.

She had put them on in the carriage house that afternoon, standing at the mirror, without a word.

I had fastened the clasp.

My hands had not been steady, and she had noticed, and said nothing.

Now she laughed at something Hannah said and threw her head back, and half the room turned to look.

I had gone seven years without hearing that laugh.

I had never expected to hear it in this room.

"Rafe."

Martin stood at my elbow, in black tie, thinner than he'd been a month ago.

"Sir."

"Do you intend to stand there all night?"

"Yes."

He nodded slowly.

"The offer on the carriage house stands," he said. "The deed is signed. I'd like you to take it."

"I put my notice in on your desk this morning."

He turned his head.

"I'll work out the month," I said. "After that I don't work for you.

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