I Vanished with the Don's True Heir novel · Chapter 28 of 32

Chapter 28: Every Night

Orsola didn't take it.

She looked at the ring on her son's palm the way she'd looked at the investigator's card.

"What would I do with that?"

"It's yours," Livio said. "You were his wife. You were the first one he did it to."

"I was the first one he did it to," she agreed. "So no."

She got out of the truck.

I got out the other side with Lina asleep in the sling.

The sign buzzed over all three of us. Every letter.

"You fixed it," I said.

"The man at the hardware store in Machias sold me the wrong tubes twice." He didn't look away from his mother. "I called the capos this morning. All eleven."

"And?"

"I told them I'm done. At the next Sunday table, I sit at the head one last time, and then they vote, and I'm not on the paper."

Orsola folded her arms.

"So you give it to me."

"I thought..."

"You thought I'd want to be the first woman Don in Philadelphia." She snorted. "I ran from that ring, Livio. I lived in a motel at the end of America so I'd never have to look at it."

"Then what do I do with it?"

"Put it on the table at that dinner and let a dozen men argue about it." She took her cigar box off the seat of the truck. "And don't you ever hand it back to a Falcone."

She went past him up the steps.

At the office door, she turned around.

"Give me the baby," she said to me. "You two have something to talk about, and she's asleep."

I unbuckled the sling and gave her Lina.

The office door closed.

We stood there under the lit sign.

He'd gotten thinner again, on dishes and the dock. His hands were cracked across the knuckles.

"I didn't do it for this," he said. "The chair. I want you to know that. I'd have done it if you never came back up the hill."

"I know."

"How do you know?"

"Because you answered the question on the dock," I said. "You didn't make it pretty."

He let out a breath.

I sat down on the diner steps.

After a second he sat down beside me. Not touching.

"I have terms," I said.

"Say them."

"Lubec. Not Chestnut Hill. Not Passyunk. Here."

"Done."

"My kitchen. Lina's. You wash dishes when I tell you, and you don't get an opinion about the gravy."

"I always had an opinion about the gravy. That's how we met."

"You can have it quietly."

His mouth moved. "Done."

"My name on the deed."

"Done," said Orsola, through the office window. "I signed it over in May. The postmistress notarized it."

"Go to bed!" I said.

"I'm going."

The window shut.

Livio put his face in his hands. His shoulders were shaking.

"Are you laughing?"

"No."

"No guns in the house," I said. "Not one. Not in a drawer. Not in the car."

"Done."

"And you ask me. Every night. Whether I want you there." I looked at him. "And if I say no, you go to Room 9, and you don't sulk."

He took his hands off his face.

← Chapter 27 · All chapters · Chapter 29 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend