A book

The April Tower

Book One

By Marlo8 chapters

Tonya has been there for everything. She was there on the first day of third grade, when a girl in a yellow crop top turned around at the next desk and already knew her name. She was there through high school, through college, through one charged night of “yes, but no.” And she is there now, in a cathedral packed to capacity, while a room full of mourners begs God to give her back. Fifteen years earlier, April marries Daniel, a football star whose father builds hotels in Dubai, and the whole wedding flies halfway around the world for the reception. Somewhere over the ocean, April pulls Tonya into a back room and says two words: I’m late. She slept with Daniel and his best friend the same week, and the rookie won’t stop texting. What follows is three hours of lies at a gold reception, a soundproof suite that locks from the inside, a lipstick message on a mirror, and a hidden floor called P4 where April is kept for nine months. Then three heartbeats, two fathers, and a baby girl named Toni, after Tonii. Back in Dallas there are divorce papers, photographs of a married mistress, and a law that keeps April bound for two more years. Back in Dubai, there is a note under the door: STOP TALKING. The April Tower is a story about the friend who stays.