Chapter 6: The Cake

On the sixth morning a courier in a black helmet knocked at the bakery's side door and asked for Donna Sarnelli.

Pina sent him up with a croissant and a look.

He handed me a thick cream envelope and was gone before I had signed for it.

My name was on the front in Tommaso's handwriting, with a small heart after it.

Inside were a dozen pages, a pen and a note.

Tomorrow at nine, the party. Sign it again, amore, and we'll tear it up together like always. I miss your pasta.

I laid the pages across Pina's kitchen table and read every one of them.

It took twenty minutes, because I had never read them before.

In three years of this game I had only ever looked at the last page, where my name went.

The first page said the Sarnelli marriage was to be dissolved by mutual consent.

The second page said everything in the villa would stay with Tommaso, and everything in my name would stay with me.

The third page said I waived any claim on the family's business.

There was no court stamp on any of them. At the bottom of the last page, in tiny grey type, was a line that had always been there.

For entertainment only. Not a legal document. The Sarnelli Game, third edition.

"He printed a joke footer," Pina said, reading over my shoulder. "He has a legal footer on his own prank."

"He's thorough."

"He's an idiot."

I turned the last page face down.

"Pina, I need the number of the family's lawyer."

"You have it. You've had it for six years."

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