He Left His Pregnant Bride at the Altar novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: To Her Face

Nerina took us to the kitchen, because it was the one room in the house with a back door.

She sat at the scarred wooden table where she had done her homework at nine years old.

"Mari can stay," she said. "Rosa too. I'm not afraid of a baby."

Ruggero pulled out the chair across from her, and he sat.

The captains murmured in the dining room.

Tiberio stood by the stove with his arms crossed and kept his eyes on the floor.

"Start at the beginning," Nerina said. "I don't want the part you tell yourself."

He drew a breath.

"It was raining. I sat in a black car with the lights off, on the shoulder of a road with no houses, for an hour."

"What were you thinking?"

"That I was twenty-two and my father was watching from the car behind. That I'd be a Don someday, and this was what it cost."

"Go on."

"Your father's sedan came around the bend. I turned the lights on and pulled out, to scare him. I was told to push him into the barrier, nothing else. He swerved."

His voice was flat, and he didn't look away from her.

"He swerved too hard, and the car hit the rail, and it went over."

"And then?"

"I got out. I went down the slope in the dark. Your mother was already gone. Your father was alive for a minute, and he said your name."

Nerina's hand lay open on the table, and it didn't move.

"What name?"

"The one you had before."

She closed her eyes.

"You asked me where your mama was, and I said I didn't know."

"You lied."

"I did. I've said it to myself every night since."

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