He Took My Love 99 Times. The 100th Time, He Lost Me Forever. novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Sunday Dinner

Donata's Sunday dinner had been held in the same dining room for forty years, and nobody had ever walked into it uninvited.

I did it on the fifth night, in my own blue dress with the hem I'd fixed myself.

Leone came with me in a clean shirt and a tie that didn't match anything.

"I'm only here as your doctor," he said at the door. "If anybody faints."

"Nobody's going to faint."

"Then I'll hold your coat."

The butler opened the double doors and stopped breathing.

The long table was set for thirty.

I knew every face at it.

The Signora's husband sat halfway down, and the harbor council beside him, and the families who sent their sons to Fabrizio's weddings.

Donata sat at one end in black with her pearls on.

Fabrizio sat at the other, with a place beside him that I had always taken.

It was still set.

Nobody had moved my knife.

"Gemma," Fabrizio said, and rose, and the whole table rose half a second behind him.

His face had gone gentle at once.

"You came home."

"I came to dinner," I said.

"Sit. Please. You've lost weight." He pulled out my chair. "Mama, tell the kitchen to bring her something warm."

"She isn't staying," Donata said.

"Then I'll stand," I said.

I walked down the length of the room until I reached the middle of the table, where the candles were tallest, and put one hand on a chair back.

Thirty people watched me.

My knees were shaking and my voice was not.

"I'm told some of you have heard I'm dying," I said.

Nobody answered.

"I'm not. I'm tired, and I'm angry, and I'm twenty-eight years old. And five days ago I learned that ninety-nine percent of my love for my husband is gone."

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