Chapter 18: Lights Out

Veronica's POV

I sat at table one, between my mother and my brother, under a banner with my childhood face on it.

A waiter set a pink cocktail in front of me. A woman across the table whispered, "Is that her?" and her husband shushed her.

Six hundred people filled the room. Every phone in it was pointed at the stage.

Orin stood at the back by the doors. He caught my eye and held it, and then he looked at the ceiling lights.

At 8:04 the pink glow on the stage deepened and the music dropped.

Lyla walked out alone in a long pink gown, with a microphone and her hair pinned in soft curls.

The room rose and applauded.

"Thank you," she said, and put her hand over her heart. "Thank you so much. I'm going to cry, I always cry."

She wiped the corner of one eye with a fingertip.

"Twenty years ago I met a little girl in a yellow raincoat. She was afraid of everything, and I decided that I would never leave her alone."

The screen behind her filled with two girls, one flashlight.

"Everything Glowkin does comes from that girl. From a night that started it all."

My mother's hand found my knee under the table and gripped it.

"Tonight there is one person I need to thank," Lyla said. "She has had a hard week."

Six hundred heads turned, slowly, toward table one.

"The cruelest thing that can happen to you is being misunderstood by someone you love. I love her. I forgive her. Veronica, will you come up here?"

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