Chapter 15: Three Hundred Phones

Three hundred people held their breath, and then three hundred phones came up.

I knew that sight. I had seen it from my knees on a tile floor.

Lorna looked at all the little lights, and for a moment she seemed to enjoy them.

"Mrs. Hartwell," she said. "May I?"

She held out her hand for the microphone.

Margaret looked at me.

I nodded, because I wanted every person in that room to hear her say it with her own mouth.

Margaret gave her the microphone and stepped back to my side.

"Thank you," said Lorna. "I'm a nurse. I was a nurse for thirty years."

Her voice was warm and a little unsteady, and I knew every note of it.

"Twenty-two years ago I found a baby in that hospital, alone, in a room with the machines off. Nobody was with her. Nobody came."

A murmur went around the tables.

"I took her home. I raised her. I fed her and I clothed her."

Her voice rose.

"And tonight the family that left her alone throws a party and calls her a long-lost daughter."

She turned and looked at Margaret.

"Where were you that night, Mrs. Hartwell?"

Margaret didn't flinch. She was gripping my hand so hard that her bent finger dug into mine.

"I'd like to answer that," I said.

I took the microphone out of Lorna's hand. She let me, because three hundred people were watching.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Rejected Jinx Is A Billionaire Heiress from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.