Chapter 25: The Gala

Raymond typed his answer with one finger, standing in the hospital parking lot.

I'll be there, son.

For six weeks I put drops in Lily's eye every two hours, day and night.

I slept next to her in my mother's bed with an alarm under my pillow.

On the Thursday before the gala the detective came in after close and sat on stool four.

"The grand jury voted this afternoon," she said. "Sealed until we make the arrests. Where will they both be Saturday night?"

"On a stage," Raymond said.

She looked at him over her glasses.

"Then I'll be at the back of the room. The DA releases the video Saturday night. Your sound man gets the first copy."

The gala was in a hotel ballroom on Nob Hill, four hundred people under the chandeliers.

The bakery sisters had put me in a long dark green dress and wouldn't let me argue.

Rafael wore a rented black suit the young mechanic had put a deposit on.

The assistant walked beside Raymond in a new suit and new black shoes.

At the door a woman with a tablet checked the list.

"Raymond Chen," she said. "Plus three."

I heard it go table to table. That's her. The water woman.

Daniel saw us from the head table.

He stood and came across the room smiling, in a tuxedo, with his steel watch on.

"Dad. I'm glad you came."

He saw the assistant.

The smile stayed. Everything under it went gray.

"Where have you been for six weeks?"

"Busy, Mr. Chen," the assistant said.

Daniel turned to me and dropped his voice.

"If you make a scene tonight, Lily reads about it someday."

"She's going to read about tonight either way," I said.

Vivian sat at the head table in a white gown, the pear diamond on her hand.

She watched me walk to our table and smiled with her whole mouth.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Goodbye to the Man Who Betrayed Us from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.