He Denied Our Daughter, Now He Begs for Us novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Not This Hour

The housekeeper took Daisy from me in the front hall without a word.

"He's in the study," she said. "He hasn't eaten."

I put the folded page in my pocket and opened the study door without knocking.

Santo stood at the window with his back to me and a full glass in his hand.

He didn't turn around.

"The car brought you faster than I thought," he said.

"You left."

"You didn't need me there."

"You left me on the sidewalk with a baby and a stranger's driver."

"You had a table full of capos." His voice was level. "You won every vote in that room. You got everything you wanted."

"Is that what you think I wanted?"

"It's what any woman would want, after what he did."

"Santo."

"He asked you to come home." He finally turned. His eyes were flat. "I heard it. Put Gianna out, start over. And I thought, here it is. They all go back to him, in the end."

"Who is 'they'?"

"Everyone who ever sat in that kitchen and said she hated him."

"And you didn't stay to hear the answer."

"I didn't need to hear it." He set the glass down on the desk. "I'm telling you now so you don't have to make a speech. You can leave at any hour. The door's open, and I told you I'd open it myself."

I looked at him.

He stood with his hands at his sides, and his shoulders were braced for a blow.

It was how he had stood in the doorway in the rain.

I walked past him to the study door and shut it.

I turned the key in the lock.

I held the key up so he could see it, and then I dropped it into the front pocket of my jeans.

"Moira," he said.

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