Chapter 14: The Visit

"Go away, Silvio."

"I'm not here to fight." His voice was soft. I hadn't heard it soft in a year. "I'll stand here all day. Your neighbors will love it."

Through the window I could see the street.

The black Escalade was double-parked under the bare trees. The laughing one leaned on the hood, smoking.

If I didn't let him up, he'd let himself up.

"Come up alone," I said.

I pressed the button. The street door buzzed.

Then I opened the voice memo app on my phone, hit the red circle, and slid the phone under the blanket by my hip.

He knocked once. I'd left the apartment door unlocked so he wouldn't break it.

He came in with two dozen white roses, the kind from the church in the video.

He stopped when he saw me in the bed.

"You're sick?"

"I'm on bed rest. Low placenta. There was a bleed."

The roses dipped toward the floor.

"Because of the car?"

"Because of a lot of things."

He looked around for somewhere to put the flowers. He laid them on the dresser.

Then he saw the wall.

The corkboard. The red string. My face with a crown on it.

He looked at it for a long time.

"Funny," he said. "That's my whole life up there."

"It's my whole job."

He pulled the armchair close to the bed, Aaron's chair, and sat down in it with his elbows on his knees.

He didn't look like the boss.

He looked like he hadn't slept since October.

"I dream about it," he said. "The road. Your nightgown. Every night I pick you up and every night the phone rings."

"And every night you put me down."

He flinched.

"I didn't know about the blood. I thought it was scrapes."

"You saw the blood, Silvio. You went white."

He rubbed his face with both hands.

"Okay. I saw it." His voice cracked on it. "I saw it and I went to her anyway. Is that what you want me to say?"

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