Quitting this Family after Being Abandoned for Laughs novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: A Toast to Colin
My father drank his champagne to the bottom and set the empty flute on the piano.
Colin drank half of his and kissed my cheek.
The room applauded.
"Thank you, everyone," I said, in my quietest voice. "Before the dancing, I made something for Colin and my family."
I pulled a cable from my bag and plugged my phone into the big screen behind the quartet.
Dani clapped her hands. "A slideshow! I helped her pick the music!"
She had not helped me with anything.
I pressed play.
The first slide was a photo of a gravel road at dawn.
Under it was a caption: Wednesday night, the field.
Then the speakers filled the ballroom with my sister's voice.
"One minute," Dani said, and sixty people heard her laugh.
"Five minutes," my father's voice said.
The audio ran on through the dog, the pesticide, the bets, and every careless word Colin said before he walked out the door.
When it reached the line about the cell tower, someone near the back gasped.
A great-aunt put her hand to her mouth.
The next slide showed the shared status board, the red bar of dead hours, and the line in gray: Sector 4 administrative lock, entered 23:31 by user c.ashby.
"That's my login," Colin said. His glass was shaking in his hand. "Tara, that's not what it looks like."
"It's the exact time you were laughing at the table," I said. "I have the recording."
Beside me my father swayed and put a hand on the piano.
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