Chapter 16: Not Going Anywhere

Nico had the car at the bottom of the loading ramp with the back door already open.

Gina threw herself in first, and I came after her with the green book jammed against my ribs.

He pulled out with the headlights off.

We went down an alley behind a funeral home, through the lot of a closed tire shop and out onto Bloomfield Avenue.

Behind us I saw Marco's second car swing out of the clinic gate and turn the wrong way.

Nobody spoke until we reached the Parkway.

Nico drove under the overpass at Irvington and pulled onto the gravel and cut the engine.

Gina got out and walked away down the shoulder to be alone.

I stayed in the front seat with the book in my lap.

"Tell me what happens on Tuesday," I said.

"The table votes."

"And after the vote?"

He did not answer.

I took the folded paper out of his inside pocket, because I had seen the corner of it in the bakery and had not asked.

It was a lawyer's letter, signed and dated, with his name on the bottom line.

I read it by the dome light.

He had signed his half of the tailor shop and his shares in the docks over to me and to my daughter.

"You were going to leave," I said.

"Yes."

"After the vote. You were going to hand me a pen and a car key, and go."

"You told me in the kitchen you would never forgive me."

"I told you to explain it again when I could bear it."

"Elena."

"Do you think I fucked you in that kitchen because I'd decided to hate you?"

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