The Twin Missing From the Family Photo novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: One Question

The two guards reached the steps at the side of the stage, and Miles reached them first.

He had come down from the AV booth at a run, in his fleece vest.

He planted himself at the bottom step with his arms out.

"Don't," he said. "She's my sister."

"Sir, the doctor asked us to take her out."

"I know what he asked for. I've done what he asked for since I was twelve."

Behind me, Talbot walked down the aisle.

He did not hurry.

He stopped between the second guard and the stage, and he took out his phone and held it up.

"She's an adult and she's speaking at a public event," he said, in his flat Portland voice. "Put a hand on her, and it's on camera."

The guard looked at the phone.

Then he looked past Talbot at the room.

Three hundred people had their own phones up.

I could see the little red lights in the dark, table after table.

The guard lowered his hand.

My father came out from behind the lectern.

"This is a family matter," he said, to the room. "This is a girl with a long history of illness and a sister who has always been jealous. Please, put your phones away. You're being used."

"By whom?" a voice said.

It was not loud.

At the front table the hospital board chair had risen from her seat.

She was the gray-haired woman in pearls who had sat beside Ivy at dinner and eaten almost nothing.

She walked to the foot of the stage with her hands folded in front of her.

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