He Scorned His Substitute Wife, Now He Begs Her Back novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Wire

Tierney saw him in the doorway and her face did something quick and expert.

"Luca," she said. "Darling, you've got it wrong. She's twisting what I said."

Luca walked past Livia into the room.

He didn't hurry, and he didn't raise his voice.

"Say it to me," he said. "The part about the napkin."

"I was making conversation."

"Say it."

Tierney looked at his face, and then at the open phone in his hand.

She seemed to decide something.

"Your father bought me a coffee on Lexington," she said, quite calmly. "He wrote a number on a napkin. I took it."

"Nineteen," Luca said.

"Yes."

"You told me you left because I wouldn't fight my family."

"Your father told me to tell you that."

"You let me believe it. You wrote me from Paris for a year."

"It was a kind story, Luca." She spread her good hand. "You'd have married me and been poor. By thirty you'd have resented me for it. He did what you wouldn't. You should be thanking him."

"I was twenty-two. I'd have been poor with you."

"That's the sort of thing people say at twenty-two."

He stood looking down at her.

Livia watched his hand.

It was not shaking. For the first time in four days it was perfectly still.

"Did you ever love me?" he asked.

It was a quiet question, and Tierney answered it quietly.

"I liked you very much," she said. "It isn't the same thing, and it was never going to pay the rent."

Luca nodded slowly.

"The retainer is cancelled," he said. "The account is closed as of this afternoon. I'll have the lease on this apartment looked at."

"It's your father's lease."

"Then he can tell you himself."

He turned to Livia and he did not touch her.

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