My Father Sold Me at Eighteen, but the Mafia Lord Was the One in Debt to Me novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Green Dress

It was only a drunk driver.

The guard caught him on the gravel at two in the morning, a Ricci cousin who had gone to the wrong house after a wake.

He would not say sorry in any language.

Luca went down in his trousers to deal with him and came back up with his hair on end and his eyes bright.

I lay in bed laughing into the pillow until I cried.

Then Friday came.

At noon I sat in the tub in the big white bathroom at the end of the hall, up to my chin in bubbles.

A tray across the tub held the note's pages, and I was practicing the reading until my voice went hoarse.

The door opened without a knock.

Luca stood in the doorway in shirtsleeves with a towel over his arm.

"It's Friday," I said.

"I know what day it is."

"The rehearsal is at two."

"There's time," he said.

He knelt on the tile by the tub and set the towel down.

His sleeves were pushed to the elbow, and I watched his forearms.

"Your voice is cracking," he said.

"It's nerves."

"It's the dust," he said.

"Lean forward."

I leaned.

He took a pitcher and poured warm water over my hair.

His big hands worked the soap through it, slow and firm.

His fingertips found the base of my skull and pressed, and the tension that had lived there for a week let go.

I moaned.

It came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

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