I Won't Bridge an Impossible Gap novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: A Million Euros and an Egg

I told the housekeeper I was going for a walk, and I got into Domenico Montanari's silver car.

I was not afraid of him.

I was afraid of sitting in that villa one more hour, waiting to be told what to do.

I was afraid I would start to believe I had to wait.

The Montanari house stood at the other end of the same hill, white and huge, with a fountain in the drive.

Domenico received me in a dining room full of gold-framed hunting scenes.

A breakfast for two was laid on the table.

"Sit, Nina. Eat. You have the look of a girl who hasn't eaten properly in a week."

"I had a roll."

"Then have an egg."

I stayed standing.

He shrugged and cut his own egg open.

"I'll be quick, since you're a quick person. I'm offering you one million euros, in your own name, in a bank in Milan. A flat on the Via Monte Napoleone. A train ticket for noon."

"For what?"

"For going."

"A million euros," I said. "Yesterday you called me a thief over a necklace."

"Yesterday I was being polite to the council." He wiped his mouth. "I am a practical man."

He folded the napkin.

"A girl from the slums who lives beside the Ruffo fortune for five years and takes nothing is a saint or a patient fraud. I don't believe in saints."

"So you offer me money."

"I offer you what you were always waiting for, which is a price."

He leaned back.

"I'll say the rest plainly. On Saturday, Alessio marries my daughter."

He tapped the tablecloth.

"It was written when he was ten years old. You can be in Milan with a million euros, or in a Naples bakery with nothing, watching him do it."

He smiled.

"The bakery, I should tell you, is on land my family holds the lease for."

The room was very quiet.

I looked at the egg yolk on his plate.

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