Chapter 19: The Gala

Three hundred glasses rose to Adelaide's toast, because nobody wanted to be the one who didn't.

I did not lift mine.

In the car, I had made Keir promise one thing.

"Nobody from Ashgrove gets a hand on them without my say," I had told him. "I want them in front of people, not in an ambulance."

He had said yes, with his eyes on the road.

Now he stood beside me on his crutches and kept his hands where I could see them.

Adelaide let the applause die.

"Friends," she said into the microphone. "Tonight I have news that is happy and painful at once."

She held out her hand, and Roxie stepped up beside her.

"Twenty-five years ago, a hospital made a terrible mistake," Adelaide said. "I raised a child who was not mine."

A hush fell through the hall.

"And somewhere in this city, my own daughter was raised by good, simple people who never knew what they had."

She put her arm around Roxie's shoulders.

"This is Roxie. She is my blood, and she has offered me a kidney that I did not ask for."

Murmurs spread through the hall.

"My former ward, Lena, has been wonderful to Roxie's family. But Lena has also been drawn into a dangerous marriage, and she is not herself."

"I forgive her," Adelaide said. "I will always forgive her."

Heads turned toward me across the floor.

I walked up the center aisle, alone, and I felt every one of them look.

Keir stayed where he was. I had asked him to.

I climbed the three steps to the stage and took a second microphone from the stand.

Adelaide's smile did not move.

"Thank you, Adelaide," I said. "I'd like to add something to the news."

"Lena, dear, you're overwrought."

"The foundation's treasurer is in the third row. He's the one who asked me for the lab logs."

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