Chapter 11: Three Things

Cora's POV

The microphone was warm from Porter's hand.

"Cora," he said, in a whisper that carried. "Sweetheart. Give that back."

I did not look at him.

I looked at the four hundred faces in the dark.

At the back of the hall, the cameras showed small red lights.

"Good evening," I said. "I'm Dr. Cora Fairbank."

My voice was steadier than my knees.

"I was invited here tonight to receive an award."

"I'd like to say three things first, and then you can give it to someone else."

A murmur ran through the tables.

"First. I am pregnant."

Somebody gasped. A chair scraped.

"That is not an announcement. It's my child."

"I found out the same day I found my husband in my bed with my sister."

The murmur stopped.

Porter took a step toward me. I held up one hand without turning around.

"Second. My husband's family trust releases his company to him on his thirty-fifth birthday."

"But only if he has a child on record."

"Cora," Porter said, louder.

"He needed a child, and I had been told I couldn't have one."

"So he took my sister to my bed. He called that fair."

I heard a woman at the nearest table say, "Oh my God."

At the head table, Frederick Ellsworth put down his glass.

"Third," I said. "You've all seen a video."

Behind me the screen went from the Ellsworth crest to black.

I had not asked for that.

Then the curb outside the clinic filled the screen in clean gray light.

It was a dashboard camera. The date and time ran in the corner.

I looked toward the back of the hall.

Eli stood beside the booth door with his arms folded. He did not look sorry.

I turned back to the room.

On the screen, Daisy stood on the pavement in her pale blue coat with a cake in her arms.

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