My Stepbrother Is My Secret novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Gala

"Where's Pilar?" I said.

"At the hotel since noon. Doing the flowers." My father held out the rose. "This is from the garden. Your mother planted it."

I took it.

"I'm not dressed, Dad."

"I'll wait."

He sat on my porch step in his tuxedo while I finished.

I wore red.

A long red dress with no sleeves, so my bougainvillea showed all the way down my left arm.

The plumb bob showed on my right wrist.

I put my hair up.

I put on Abuelo's gold watch, the one he wore to every ribbon-cutting.

When I came out, my father stood up and looked at me and didn't say anything for a long moment.

"Your mother," he said finally, and stopped.

We drove downtown in his truck, because he'd never owned anything else.

At a red light on Saunders, he spoke without looking at me.

"I asked her," he said. "Nicely. Like I said I would."

"And?"

"She said it's for my own good. She said in a year I'll thank her." He gripped the wheel.

"She said you'll sign. She said girls like you always sign when it's that or the slideshow."

I didn't say anything.

"What are you going to do, mija?"

"What I told you."

He nodded.

The light turned green.

He drove.

He didn't tell me not to.

The hotel ballroom held three hundred people and it was full.

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