My First Love Returned, His Stand-In Begged Me to Stay novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Not Mine to Take

Kip came down the length of the ballroom, and the guests stepped out of his way.

He stopped at the foot of the stage and looked at his cousin.

"Say it, Monty," he said. "Or I will."

Constance's grip tightened on her son's sleeve.

"Montgomery is tired," she told the microphone, with a small laugh. "It has been a long night, and he has had a little champagne."

Monty looked down at her hand.

Then he took hold of her wrist, gently, and lifted it off his arm.

"No, Mother," he said.

The microphone caught it, and the whole room heard.

"I didn't read to her."

Nobody in the ballroom moved.

"I never read to Selah in the dark. Not one night," Monty said. His voice shook, and he made it go on. "I walked into her room the morning the bandages came off, and I let her thank me."

"Monty," Constance said softly. "Stop."

"She was crying. She said she'd known my voice anywhere." He turned to me. "I knew it wasn't mine. I took it anyway."

I didn't say anything.

I couldn't have, even if I'd wanted to.

"Whose voice was it?" a woman called from the second table.

Kip answered her, and he answered me.

"Mine," he said. "Twenty-one nights."

I looked down at him from the stage.

He didn't look away, and he didn't ask me for anything.

"I know," I said.

It was the only thing I could say that was true, and it came out quiet.

Constance let go of the podium and smoothed her silver hair.

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