He Protected My Baby's Killer, So I Left Him novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Zero Seats

The bell rang once, and Carina Mazzola came into my aunt's shop with a foil tray in both hands.

She wore a white raincoat with the hood down.

Her ponytail was dry, which meant she had come straight from the car and had not waited long on the street.

"There he is," she said softly, and smiled at the youngest. "Sweetheart, you're soaked."

He didn't move.

I stepped between them, and my aunt came out of the aisle and stopped beside me with the broom held across her body.

"I made ziti," Carina said. "Yours, with the sausage. You haven't eaten since Tuesday, I checked with Paolo."

"Put it down on the counter," I said.

"Livia." Her eyes filled right on schedule. "I didn't come to fight. I came to take him home. He isn't himself. None of them are, since the hospital."

"Zia," she added, to my aunt, in the voice of a girl who used to sit on a stool by the register and ask for peppermints.

My aunt looked at her for a long moment.

"I gave you peppermints," she said. "I gave you a job the summer your brother died. I told every woman on this street you were a saint."

"I know. I'm so grateful."

"I was dusting a paint can for ten minutes tonight, Carina. I have good ears."

The tray didn't shake in Carina's hands.

Only her mouth changed, and only a little.

She set the tray on the counter next to the register.

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