Queen Never Cry novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Gold Key

The Grand Ballroom of the Drake Hotel held three hundred people in black tie and the smell of lilies.

I knew half the faces.

I had eaten dinner at their tables and signed their donations.

I had held their children at christenings.

Garret gave his name at the door and the hostess found it on her list.

Then she saw me and her smile fell off.

"Ms. Corrigan," she whispered. "Your name isn't, I mean, we were told..."

"I'm Mr. Mercer's guest," I said.

Garret set his hand lightly at the small of my back.

It was warm through the silk, and steady as a wall.

"She is," he said. "Table one, I believe."

We walked in.

It started, one head turning, then another.

A woman in diamonds put her glass down so fast it rang.

A man who had once carried me on his shoulders looked at his plate.

"Is that her?" someone hissed. "Out already?"

"She has some nerve."

"Look at that dress."

I looked straight ahead.

My grandmother's rule was easy when you had a spine to hang it on.

Table one stood in the middle of the room.

The place cards read Mercer and Guest, and the chair beside his was empty.

I did not sit.

On the stage, behind a podium wound with white roses, Lydia was beginning to speak.

She wore the cream gown from the lobby screen.

She had pinned her honey waves up so the chain at her throat showed.

The little gold key lay in the hollow of her collarbone, catching the light.

"Friends," she said into the microphone, "thank you for coming tonight."

"Two years ago this foundation suffered a betrayal none of us thought possible."

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