They Left Me to Die, So I Came Home Undefeated novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: Tea With the Wives
I did not tell anyone what Teo had said.
I ate the red gumdrops one at a time in the dark until the bag was empty, and I made a plan.
On Thursday afternoon Cosima held a tea in the glass room off the back garden.
Eight women sat at small tables with their rings on and their cups in their laps.
They were the wives of my father's men.
They had known me when I was twelve.
"Mirella, darling, sit by me," Cosima said, and patted the cushion.
I sat.
A silver tray went around with little cakes, and nobody looked straight at me.
"Everyone, you remember my sister," Cosima said.
She said it softly, with her head tilted.
"She's had such a hard time. She's been living in a warehouse."
Eleven faces turned toward me.
"A fight club, can you imagine," Cosima said, and her voice shook. "She hurt one of Papà's own men yesterday. In the courtyard, in front of the cooks."
An older woman in green lowered her teacup.
"Is that so, dear?"
"He started it," I said. "I finished it."
"She's forgotten how to be in a family," Cosima whispered to the woman beside her, loud enough for the room. "It's not her fault. Nobody taught her. I only want to help."
A woman by the window nodded slowly.
The woman in green looked me over from my shoes to my hair.
"Where did you sleep, all those years?" she asked.
I looked at Cosima.
Her hand was still on my knee, patting.
She was smiling at me with wet eyes and a perfect mouth.
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