Secret Surrogate to the Mafia King novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Thirty
At eleven-forty on the last night of July, I was sitting alone at the long kitchen table with my son at my breast.
He had been born twelve days ago, and he ate like he was angry at the whole world.
The brass key lay in the middle of the table, where it had lain every night since December.
I had never asked why.
Orazio put it back there each evening.
The house was dark except for the stove light.
Upstairs, Fabrizia's daughter was asleep in the yellow room, with her mother in the rocking chair beside her.
I heard his step in the hall, and I did not turn around.
"I thought you were asleep," I said.
"I thought you were."
He sat down across from me, close enough to touch the key.
He wore a white shirt open at the throat, and the chain was gone from his neck.
I noticed it at once.
"Where's the ring?"
"In the top drawer of the dresser upstairs, in a box," he said. "For him, when he's old enough to ask what it was."
I looked down at our son, who was pink and furious and entirely himself.
"Thank you," I said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Secret Surrogate to the Mafia King are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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