My Brother Gave Her My Place, So I Stopped Coming Home novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: In That Order

Janie's hand stayed on the microphone stand for a heartbeat.

Then she let go.

She stepped back half a pace, and her smile held, but her eyes went to the reporter in the blue scarf.

My father unfolded a sheet of paper from his jacket, looked at it and put it away again.

"I wrote a speech," he said. "I'm not going to read it."

The room was so quiet I could hear the quartet's cellist shift on her chair.

"Forty years ago, I built a firm in a basement. I'm proud of it. I'm going to tell you tonight what I did to keep it."

He looked toward the mezzanine.

"First, the building behind me. The north stair, the lobby, the nine floors above you, all of it was designed by my daughter, Sasha Klingenberg."

A murmur went through the room.

"She drew it at her kitchen table, on the back of a takeout menu. I took her name off it. I let it go on a program under another name, because I was afraid."

I gripped the mezzanine rail.

"Sasha, I'm sorry. The credit is yours. It has always been yours."

I couldn't speak. Dylan's hand closed over mine.

"Second," my father said. His voice dropped. "I have another daughter."

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