After My Heart Died, The Don Begged Crying at My Feet novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Her Name

I sat down beside him on the edge of the bed.

He didn't hide the phone, and he didn't look up.

"This is the one I had that night," he said. "It still has the glass from the car in the screen."

"Why did you keep it?"

"Because I couldn't throw it away and I couldn't turn it on." He turned it so the screen caught the lamp. "I turned it on tonight. I haven't done that in two years."

I looked at the column of my own name.

My chest hurt.

I had not seen the list from the other side.

On my side, I had only held the phone and counted the rings.

"Nine," he said. "Every one of them has a time. 10:41. 10:52. 11:03."

He touched the glass.

"I've heard them ring a thousand times in my head. Tonight is the first time I've seen them. I never once picked up."

"Dominic."

"Say it, Annie. Whatever you want to say. I'll sit here."

I took the phone out of his hand and set it face down on the nightstand.

I put my arms around his neck, and I held on.

He shook once, hard, and then he was crying into my shoulder with his good arm locked around my back.

I let him.

When it was done he lay down beside me, and neither of us said a word for a long time.

The window turned from black to gray.

"Come with me," I said.

"Where?"

"Somewhere."

I took a coat from the closet, the long green one, and put it over his shoulders because he could not get his arm into a sleeve.

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