The Moretti Daughter They Denied novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: You Didn't Tell Me To

Matteo pays for the best doctor out of her year; Nora collapses and he carries her, then at the wedding reception Antonella calls her charity and Carmela says the Ravello contract named her by name.

"You went through my file," I said.

"My man followed you to the clinic on Tuesday," Matteo said. "I read it tonight. I didn't ask you anything."

"That's a thin line."

"It's the one we agreed on."

He was right, and I hated that he was right.

I took the folder and held it against my chest.

"I don't want your help," I said. "I don't take things from people."

"I know," he said. "I saw your face when my grandmother gave you the second bowl."

"I'm not a charity."

"No. You're a year." He gave my own word back to me without any smile. "I'm paying for the year. Treatment comes out of it. You owe me nothing."

"I don't believe that."

"Then believe this. The best hematologist in the state will see you at eight on Monday, and if you don't want me in the room, I won't be."

I looked at his hand on the doorframe, and the broken knuckle on his first finger.

"You don't say out loud that you're paying," I said. "Not to me, and not to anyone."

"Done."

He went back down the hall. I locked the door, and then I sat on the floor with my back against it and read my own file twice.

Monday I went to the clinic with Matteo's driver, who didn't ask me a single question.

The doctor was a quiet woman with a gray braid who said the word "induction," and said it again when I looked at her.

By the time I got back to the brownstone my hands were shaking.

I was in the kitchen reaching for a glass when the floor tilted.

I remember the glass breaking.

I remember a hand under my arm, and then another under my knees.

"Don't," I said. "I said no touching."

"You did." Matteo had me up against his chest, and he was already on the stairs. "Tell me to put you down and I will."

I opened my mouth.

The stairs went by one at a time.

His heart was steady and loud against my ear.

His arm was warm across my back, and I felt the heat of his palm through my sweater.

He didn't say anything else.

I didn't say it.

At the top of the stairs he kicked my door open and laid me on the bed, and his hand stayed on my ribs a second after he'd let go.

"You didn't tell me to," he said.

"You didn't ask," I said, and turned my face to the wall.

We were married Saturday at the county courthouse.

It took six minutes, and I wore a white dress that Fiorenza had hemmed the night before, with pins still in the lining.

The reception was in the back room of a Ravello restaurant, with long tables and both families facing each other across the room.

Salvatore sat on the Moretti side and didn't touch his food.

Every time I looked up, his eyes were already on me.

Antonella crossed the floor in cream silk, and she kissed the air beside my cheek.

"Matteo," she said, smiling at him and speaking to the room. "You're very generous."

She turned her smile on me.

"We took Nora in as a baby. A charity case, truly, and we never made her feel it."

The men on both sides of the room heard her.

Matteo set his glass down.

"Mrs. Moretti," he said, in the same voice. "In my house nobody keeps a tally of what they give."

He let that sit.

"You'll want to remember it when you visit."

Antonella's smile stayed. Her fingers went white around her bag.

"Of course," she said, and went back to her seat.

Fiorenza, beside me, patted my knee. "Eat," she said. "Don't listen to that woman."

Matteo went to speak to a man in a gray suit.

I stood at the edge of the room holding a glass of water, and Carmela came up beside me.

She was in a green dress, and she had her phone in her hand, face down.

"You look nice," she said. "Matteo's done well for himself."

"Thank you."

"Do you know what I find funny?" She lowered her voice.

"I read the paper he sent Papa. It didn't say the eldest Moretti daughter."

"What did it say?"

Carmela smiled with all her teeth.

"It had your name on it. He asked for you by name, Nora. I wonder why."

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