His Ring on Her Finger, My Name on the Door novel · Chapter 23 of 32
Chapter 23: The Tape
Francesca pressed stop.
At the end of the block, the black car's parking lights came on.
She started the engine and pulled out without her headlights, and turned the first corner, and then the next.
She didn't turn the lights on until she was over the bridge into Chelsea.
Nobody followed.
She parked behind an all-night diner under a buzzing sign and locked the doors again.
Then she rewound the little cassette all the way to the beginning.
She pressed play.
Her father's voice filled the car.
"Wednesday, September twentieth. Late. Ottavio's coming up from the restaurant. I want this on the record."
She had to put her hand over her mouth.
She hadn't heard his voice in three years.
A door opened on the tape. Footsteps. The clink of ice.
"You wanted me, Benedetto."
"Sit down."
A chair creaked.
"Halifax," her father said. "Nine years. Every container light. Forty million dollars, give or take."
There was a long silence on the tape.
"Who's been telling you stories?"
"Nobody. I weighed them myself. Your initials are on every release, Ottavio. Every one."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of His Ring on Her Finger, My Name on the Door are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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