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Billionaire Mocked a Black Girl 'Dance This Waltz, I'll Adopt You' — His Smirk Died When She Moved

Billionaire Mocked a Black Girl 'Dance This Waltz, I'll Adopt You' — His Smirk Died When She Moved

Chapter 3

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He made his way through the crowd now, champagne in hand, scanning the orphan tables the way a man scans a menu. His eyes moved past the loud ones, past the ones who smiled, past the ones who tried to make eye contact. He stopped on Daphne. She was the quietest one, the worst-dressed, sitting alone at the end of the table with a plastic bag on her lap and eyes that looked straight ahead at nothing. She hadn't smiled once since the guests arrived.Perfect: a quiet Black girl in state-issued clothes sitting in a room full of people who hadn't bothered to learn her name. Maximum emotion, maximum footage, maximum donations.Cornelius leaned toward his assistant, pointed; the assistant nodded and spoke into a radio.At the orphan table, Daphne's fingers kept tapping: one-two-three, one-two-three. The waltz played on. The silver shoes sat in the plastic bag on her lap, catching the fluorescent light every time she shifted her weight. She didn't know that in less than ten minutes, a man she had never met would drag her onto a stage and dare her to dance for a room full of strangers. She didn't know that the shoes in her lap would end up on the floor. And she didn't know that before the night was over, every person in this room would know her name.The string quartet finished a piece. Cornelius climbed onto the makeshift stage—three wooden pallets bolted together and draped with a black cloth. He took the microphone from the stand and tapped it twice.The room quieted."Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the 15th annual Braddock Foundation Charity Gala."Applause. He let it roll, turning his head left to right like a man accepting an award."Now, every year I come to this orphanage and I meet one of these kids. And every year they remind me why we do what we do." He paused, smiled. "So tonight, let's meet someone. Come on up here, sweetheart."He pointed straight at Daphne. His assistant was already at her table, hand on her shoulder, guiding her to stand.Daphne rose. The plastic bag with the silver shoes hung from her left hand. She walked to the stage without hurrying. Two hundred faces turned; camera flashes popped from three directions.
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Billionaire Mocked a Black Girl 'Dance This Waltz, I'll Adopt You' — His Smirk Died When She Moved

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