Chapter 10: The Written Vow

Dominic was sitting on the shop step at five the next morning, with his coat open and a folded paper in his hand.

I saw him from the stairwell window and went down in my aunt's robe.

I did not go alone.

Elio had slept in his truck at the curb, with the doors locked and a blanket over his knees, because somebody had cut his padlock.

He was out of it before I reached the door.

The two men looked at each other across the sidewalk.

Dominic stood up slowly.

"I'm not here to fight," he said. "Carina doesn't know I'm here."

"Then say it," I said. "Say what you came to say."

He held out the paper.

It was three sheets of cream stationery, folded in thirds and gone soft at the creases.

"Read it. Please."

I took it, and I didn't unfold it.

"What is it?"

"The vows I wrote for the wedding."

He glanced at Elio and back to me.

"I was going to read it to you at the altar, in front of everyone. It says what happened the night Carina's brother died. It says I was driving."

My hands were steady, and that surprised me.

"You'd have told me at the altar."

"I couldn't think of another place where I wouldn't back out."

I heard Elio let out a short, hard breath.

"I told Carina on the first of October," Dominic went on. "I owed her that."

"I sat in her kitchen and said, I'm going to tell Livia, and then I'm going to tell your mother, and then I'm going to the police."

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