Chapter 15: Third of March

Maxim's POV

I had promised to stay in the car, and I broke that promise at the word affidavit.

Margot sat at the table by the window with a cup of tea, and she did not look afraid of me.

She never had.

"Say it again," I said. "The part about the monitor."

"I think you heard it the first time, darling."

"I got up."

My voice was low.

"The sound stopped, and I told Tokyo to hold on, and I ran. I was in her room in seconds. I did compressions on the floor until the ambulance came."

"That isn't in the report."

"Because you were upstairs, and you told the police what you wanted them to write."

Her cup stopped halfway to her mouth.

It was the only crack I'd ever seen in her.

Elena's grandmother stood up with a rolling pin in both hands.

"Out," Fiorella said. "In my house, we feed people who tell the truth."

Margot set the cup down.

She picked up her bag, she smoothed her skirt, and she walked to the door with her chin high.

On the way past me she said very softly, "You never once said it was my fault, Maxim. You let me say it for you."

Then the bell rang, and she was gone.

I stood in that deli and could not feel my hands.

Elena crossed the floor and held both of them.

"We have it on tape," she said. "All of it."

"She'll say it was a joke."

"Then a judge can listen to the joke."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Said Children Were a Mistake, So I Ran With His Baby from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.