The Last Time You Chose Her novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: No Heart
In the morning I put the green folder on the kitchen table, next to the coffee pot.
Fausta had gone to early Mass.
The house was quiet, and Pietro came in with his hair wet and a clean shirt, and his face changed when he saw the folder.
"You went into my desk," he said.
"I went in for a pen, the day Ugo first came. I've kept quiet about it for weeks. I'm done."
I opened it to the first page and turned it around so he could read.
"'Marta Sartorelli, eldest,'" I said. "'The books. No heart. Will not make trouble.'"
He didn't say anything.
"Is that your handwriting?"
"Yes."
"Did you write it?"
"Yes. Marta, listen to me."
"I'm listening. That's all I've ever done in my family, so I'm good at it." I kept my voice level. "You picked me because I wouldn't make trouble."
"That was fourteen months ago."
"And in all that time, did I make any?"
"You sat across from my father's accountants for a year and corrected their arithmetic without raising your voice."
"I thought that was a compliment."
"It was." He took a step toward me. "It was the best thing I knew about anyone."
"No heart."
"I didn't mean..."
"You didn't mean it, but you wrote it." I closed the folder. "Last night you let me ride you on a cot and said 'mine' into my mouth, and then your phone lit up with my sister saying she dreams about you."
His face went still.
"She texts me every night. I told you that would happen. I answer briefly. I have to."
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