His Test Was Fake, But My Death Was Real novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: What She Wrote
Stefano came up the stones with a canvas bag over his shoulder and his bandaged hand held against his chest.
He stopped in the cabin door and did not come in until I nodded.
Dario stood by the stove with his arms folded.
"You're bleeding on the floor," I said.
"I'll clean it."
"What did you bring?"
He took a small green notebook from the bag and held it out.
I knew it before my fingers closed on it.
I had bought it two years ago from a stationer on Michigan Avenue, the week Stefano first gave me his mother's ring to wear.
"It was in the second drawer of your dressing table," he said. "Under the scarves. Camille's men tore the room apart an hour after you left the study. I got there first."
"You read it."
"I read the first page. I stopped."
"Why?"
"Because it wasn't mine."
I held the notebook and did not open it.
"Read it to me," I said.
"Maeve."
"Aloud. I want to hear what you think you were testing."
Stefano sat down on the edge of the wooden chair and opened the book with his good hand.
The page was dated the night before they told me he was dead.
I could see my own handwriting from where I stood, small and slanted.
He cleared his throat twice.
"I'm not good at this," he read. "Aldo says a bride should write her vows. He says it like one more thing I owe the house."
His voice was low.
"I do owe the house. I owe it a roof, and a bed, and the years after my parents. Everyone in it reminds me, kindly."
"Stefano never has."
He stopped.
"Go on," I said.
"Stefano never has. He has never once said I owed him. He says please when he asks me for the salt."
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