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Tempting the Mafia Twins novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Ring

The study was dark, and the drawer was still open an inch.

Carmine switched on the desk lamp and stood back from it.

I opened the drawer all the way.

The ring lay in its velvet square, small and bright, the little diamond that matched my mother's.

Beneath it was a thin stack of receipts held with a paper clip.

Five of them, from a jeweler on Wabash, each dated October ninth.

"Read them," he said.

I read the first.

Engraving, interior of band, one line, paid in cash.

I took the ring out of the velvet and tilted it under the lamp.

Inside the gold, in tiny careful letters, ran a column of dates.

October 9, 2021.

October 9, 2022.

October 9, 2023.

October 9, 2024.

October 9, 2025.

"Every year I took it to him and had him add one," Carmine said.

"Why?"

"So that if you came back and asked what I'd been doing, I'd have an answer I could show you."

"That I came every year to the day, and I did not stop."

The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Tempting the Mafia Twins are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

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