He Protected My Baby's Killer, So I Left Him novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Emilio's Ledger

Livia's POV

My aunt drove me to Hope Street in the shop van and parked across the road with the engine running.

"I'll sit," she said. "If that one lays a hand on you, I'll sit on him."

The gate was open.

Six men in work jackets stood in a loose half circle on the gravel with their arms folded.

Elio was at the center of it, and when he saw me his shoulders came down.

Emilio stood across from him in his navy overcoat, with a canvas bag at his feet.

He turned when my boots hit the gravel, and for a moment he looked like what he had been in my kitchen for ten years, which was a polite man who wanted me to be comfortable.

"Livia," he said. "Thank you for coming."

"Elio asked me to."

"I know." He drew a breath. "I'd like to make you an offer. It's better that you hear it than that he does. He's too close."

Elio put his hand into his jacket and took out a small silver drive.

He held it out to me, flat on his palm, in front of all six of his men.

"It's yours," he said. "The phone, the drives, the copies in the bank. You say when the room hears it, or you say never."

I took it.

It weighed nothing at all.

I closed my hand, and Emilio watched the drive until it went into my coat pocket.

"Four hundred thousand dollars," he said. "In cashier's checks, in your name, your aunt's name, or the name of any lawyer you like. Sixty thousand in cash today, if you want it in your hand."

He crouched and opened the bag so I could see it.

I had never seen that much money in one place.

I looked at it for a long time, and then I looked at him.

"What's it for?" I said.

"I told you. For the drives."

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