Chapter 12: He Chose Me Twice

Kirill read the text over my shoulder.

"Alone," he said. "No."

"If you walk into his house, he won't sign. He'll be too busy proving he's not afraid of you."

"Then I don't walk in." He was already reaching for his keys. "I sit at the curb."

"With the engine running and the window down."

"Twenty minutes."

"Thirty. He'll want to make a speech."

"Twenty-five," Kirill said, "and then I come in and make my own."

The square was dark and the church was locked.

There was nobody on the stoop.

That was the first strange thing.

Vin opened the front door himself, in his shirtsleeves, with a glass in his hand.

"You came," he said, like he hadn't been sure.

"Where are the papers?"

"In the study. Come in. It's cold."

The house was quiet.

No captains in the kitchen.

No lilies.

Somebody had stopped buying them.

The divorce papers were on his desk, a thick stack with yellow tabs where I was supposed to sign.

He'd signed none of his.

"You haven't signed."

"Sit down a minute."

"Vin."

"One minute, Simona. You owe me one minute after four years."

I didn't sit.

He sat on the edge of the desk, and I wondered if he'd seen Kirill do it.

"Romina's moving out," he said. "Tomorrow. She's going to her sister's in Cherry Hill. I've already told her."

"That's nice."

"I mean it. I've been thinking." He put the glass down. "That night, I made a bad call. A fast one. You're right, I should have gone for you."

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