He Made Her His Wife for Seven Days. I Made Him My Ex. novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Reception
Sylvie's POV
They buried Mr. Keating at eleven on Wednesday, and by noon the Holloway Grand's ballroom was full of people holding teacups.
Helen had put the reception at the Grand, and nobody had been able to say no.
I stood at the back table in my black dress with a tray of plain butter cakes, the kind the old ladies had asked for.
Dee stood beside me with a second tray.
"Table fourteen's staring," she said.
"Let them."
The pastry staff sat by the kitchen doors, in their good clothes, not eating.
The trainee I had taught for four years looked at her plate and then at me, and her eyes were wet.
Nathaniel stood against the far wall in a dark suit.
He had not come to my side.
He had asked, in the car, if it was a seat I would let him take, and I had told him to stand where he could see everything.
At half past twelve Helen rose from the head table.
She tapped a spoon on her glass.
"Friends," she said. "Thank you all for coming to honor a dear man."
She spoke for four minutes about forty years of friendship and a father's love, and several women dabbed their eyes.
Gretchen sat beside the empty chair that was her father's, in black, with her hands folded.
"And now a small matter," Helen said, "that I raise only because I care for Gretchen."
She smiled down at her.
"My dear, you signed a guarantee on Sunday for your father's care. It falls due, as these things do, on his passing. I would never press you at such a time, but my lawyers tell me the clock is a legal one."
She turned to the room.
"I only wish to say that if Gretchen signs the Keating shares into our family trust today, the debt is simply forgiven, and I will help her however I can."
It was beautifully done.
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