Dead to Him novel · Chapter 4 of 16

Chapter 4: Her Tools

Giovanni opened the folder right there in the hall.

The divorce papers were inside, all twelve pages.

At the bottom of the last one, on the line marked for the wife, was a signature.

Kasia Varano.

It was round and neat and leaned a little to the right.

It wasn't mine.

I never signed Varano alone. I signed Kasia Kowal Varano, every time, even on the wedding license.

Giovanni had been standing next to me when I did it.

He looked at the signature for a second and closed the folder.

"Good."

"I told you." Serafina slipped off her coat and handed it to Teresa without looking at her.

"She wants the money, Gio. She'll send a lawyer in a week asking for the house."

"She can ask."

"Let me help. You shouldn't have to look at her things."

She kept her gloves on.

I watched her walk down the hall to the kitchen and out the side door to the garage.

To my workshop.

Giovanni followed her, and so did I.

My workshop was half the garage.

My bench was there, the one my father built me when I was sixteen.

My knives hung on the pegboard in size order.

There was a tray of basswood birds I'd been carving for the children's ward at Hasbro.

Eleven were finished. The twelfth was still a block with a beak.

Serafina pulled a roll of black trash bags from her handbag.

She'd brought them with her.

She tore one off and shook it open.

"Gio, it smells like a sawmill in here. How did you stand it?"

She swept the tray of birds into the bag.

I heard them clatter against each other.

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