Every Man Who Loved Me Left Hating Me, Only My Father Knows Why novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Roll It

I dragged Jake inside by his collar and locked the door behind us.

He collapsed on the kitchen floor, breathing in short wet gasps.

His lip was split, one eye was shut, and his shirt was stuck to a cut along his ribs.

"Who did this?" I said.

"Who do you think?"

I wet a dish towel and pressed it to his face. He hissed.

"Lucia, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"For which part?"

"All of it." He closed his good eye. "I took his money."

I sat back on my heels.

"Silvio Ruzzo found me eight months ago," Jake said. "Said he knew a woman who needed a decent man. He gave me your photo and your schedule. Fifty thousand up front. Two hundred more when I got the ledger."

"The ledger."

"He wanted to know where your father keeps it. He said you'd tell me in bed sooner or later."

I kept the towel pressed to his face.

"Did you love me?" I said.

He opened his eye and looked at me.

"At the start, no. Then I did, and it was worse." His voice broke. "I was going to tell you everything the night I asked your father. I thought if I stood in that room and told him first, I'd be clean."

"Instead, you walked out hating me."

"I walked out hating myself, and I put it on you. Your face, your voice, that film." He swallowed. "It looked real, Lucia. It looked so real."

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