Chapter 10: Used

The maternity waiting room at the Evanston hospital had a muted television and a vending machine that hummed.

Delfina's mother sat in the corner in her coat, with a rosary in her lap and her eyes shut.

Four Garavani men stood along the wall and did not sit.

A nurse had come out at seven to say that Delfina was still in labor and the doctors were with her, and that was the last anyone had told us.

Teo paced the corridor outside the door.

I sat on a plastic chair for three hours with my hands in my lap.

Somewhere behind those double doors was my son, and nobody would tell me.

At ten Teo came and stood in front of me.

"Come outside," he said. "You haven't eaten. You haven't blinked."

I followed him to the parking structure, up a ramp, to the top level, where the wind came across the roof and the lights buzzed.

His car stood alone by the far wall.

He opened the passenger door.

I did not get in.

"You knew in March," I said.

"I told you that."

"You knew in March, and you sat at that table in October."

"Cece."

"Two days before the dinner, did you know what Agnese would say?"

Teo went very still.

"Answer me."

"One of my men drives for her cousin," he said at last. "He heard about the toast. Two days before."

The wind pushed my hair across my face.

"You knew," I said. "You knew she planned to do that to me in front of twelve people, and you let me wear the green dress."

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