My Stepsister Ran From the Wedding, So My Stepmother Sold Me to the Man Who Hates Her Mother novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: The Wheelhouse
Marcello's POV
I came into my own kitchen with my shirt buttoned wrong, ten minutes after I had left Nina dressing in the ice house.
Carmela Scalise sat at the end of Agata's table with a cup of coffee she had not been offered.
A priest in a gray cassock stood behind her chair, and a brown leather suitcase stood by the pantry door.
"Mr. Bellanca," she said. "Forgive the hour."
"You've made yourself at home."
"It's a family house now."
Agata was at the stove with her back to us and her shoulders very straight.
I took the chair across from Carmela and buttoned my cuff.
"I've come for my stepdaughter," she said. "Ignazio has taken a turn. The doctor says he asks for her. A girl should be with her father at a time like this, and Father has offered to say a blessing."
The priest bowed his head.
"Ignazio hasn't asked for anyone in three years," I said. "He can't."
"He asks with his eyes."
"Then he can look at her from the dock. It's a two-minute walk."
Her smile did not move.
"The contract says nothing about visits," said Carmela.
"It says plenty. Read me the clause," I said.
"Which one?" she said.
"You signed it. The one about the lease."
Carmela set her cup in its saucer.
"The Scalise dock shall hold its Pier 19 lease for the term," she recited, "provided the Scalise bride resides in the Bellanca household."
"Resides," I said.
"It's a formality," said Carmela.
"It's your signature," I said. "Say it again, for the priest."
She said it again.
She said it with her pearls shining and her eyes cold, and the priest looked at his shoes.
"She resides here," I said. "Come back when your husband is dying, and bring a doctor with you. My driver will show you out."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepsister Ran From the Wedding, So My Stepmother Sold Me to the Man Who Hates Her Mother are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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