Chapter 11: The Apology

At nine o'clock exactly, Amber handed me a microphone in front of four hundred people and a camera.

"Please welcome tonight's special guest," she said. "Natalie Brennan has something to say."

Light applause, a few laughs.

Dalton sat at table one in a black tuxedo with his jaw set.

Eleanor sat beside him with her hands folded and her eyes on the tablecloth.

At the very back of the room, Hattie stood next to the AV table, and Rhys leaned against the wall behind her in a dark suit.

He didn't look at me.

He nodded once at the girl with the clipboard.

I had put on a black dress and the gray cardigan over it, rolled twice at the cuffs.

Amber's eyes dropped to the sweater when I reached the center of the stage.

Her smile slipped.

She stepped back.

I turned to the room.

"Thank you for having me," I said. "I'm here to apologize."

Amber's sweet smile came back.

"I apologize for believing Dalton when he told me it was a joke," I said. "I apologize for forgiving it. Three years of it."

Dalton half rose.

"Roll it," I said.

The forty-foot screen above my head went black, and then it filled with my own front lawn.

Four hundred people looked up.

It was the first red sticker.

It was the chair going out the front door over two men's shoulders, and Dalton thumbing his phone, and the wall display flashing.

Payment Successful, $500.

The audio from the open windows carried across the street, and Amber's voice rang through the ballroom, bright and clear.

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