Desperate for Approval novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: After the Applause

For a moment nobody in the ballroom moved.

Then a man at the back began to clap, one slow pair of hands, and a woman near him joined in.

It was not for Dad.

It spread across the tables in pieces, uneven and awkward, because the people clapping did not know yet if they were allowed to.

Dad came down the steps from the stage.

He didn't hurry, because he never did.

He crossed the floor between the tables, and the microphone cord dragged behind him until it pulled free.

"You're leaving," he said to me, very low. "Now."

He took my arm above the elbow.

His fingers were hard, and I did not pull away.

"Take your hand off her, Dale."

Grandma had stood.

She came around the table in her green dress, using the back of a chair for her bad knee, and she stopped close enough to touch his sleeve.

"Take it off," she said. "Or I'll tell every person in this room what I signed, and what you told me when you put the pen in my hand."

His hand opened.

He looked at the guests nearest us, the ones with their phones up, and I watched him count them.

"Mr. Holm."

The voice came from behind him.

The man in the navy suit from table one stood with his leather folder under his arm.

"I'll need a copy of that trust account," the rep said. "The manufacturer will be reviewing your franchise agreement. Until it is finished, nothing gets signed. No third dealership."

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