My Sister Popped The Bubble Of My Happy Marriage novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Spare Key

Fiorella arrives with soup and moves in with a key from Adriano; the family demands Mirella sign a guarantee for Gaetano's firm, and the driver on the phone says the bank isn't short.

I had slept with the valet's card under my pillow, and in the morning I still had not called it.

I read it again at the kitchen counter. I have what your grandfather left you.

Then the doorbell rang, and I put the card in my robe pocket.

I opened the townhouse door at eight, and my sister was on the step holding a thermal pot, with Adriano behind her carrying her overnight bag.

"You barely ate last night," Fiorella said. "I made you soup. Chicken and escarole, the way Nonna's cook made it."

She walked past me and stepped into the cloth slippers in the shoe cabinet without looking down.

They were her slippers. She had left them here two Christmases ago and never taken them home.

She went into the kitchen and poured herself water in Adriano's cup, the blue one he never let me use.

I watched her take it down from the shelf without searching.

Adriano saw me watching. "She's been in this house a hundred times for family dinners. Don't make a thing of it."

Fiorella ladled soup into a bowl and set it in front of me, steaming. "Eat it while it's hot. I was up at six."

The smell reached me and my stomach rolled over.

I pushed the bowl away. "Don't bring it next time."

Her smile dimmed, just a little.

"Mirella, are you still upset about last night?"

I didn't answer.

Her phone rang. She read the screen, said, "It's Mother," and took the call out on the balcony.

When she came back her eyes were red.

Not a minute later, my own phone lit up with Mother's name.

"Fiorella brought you soup out of kindness and you gave her that face? She thinks of you every day, and you can't take a bowl of soup?"

Before I had finished my coffee, Mother, Father and Gaetano were standing in my living room.

Mother started in on me before she had her coat off. Gaetano dropped onto the couch and laughed through his nose.

"Only Fiorella can stand you. Anyone else would have written you off a year ago."

"You are a Cattaneo wife now," Mother said.

"You live on the Upper East Side under their protection."

"And you can't tolerate your own sister?"

Father waited until she was done. Then he took a document out of his briefcase and laid it in front of me.

"Gaetano's firm has a gap on the port logistics contract. The lead investor pulled out, and the bank is about to tighten his credit."

He tapped the line at the bottom.

"You sign a personal guarantee. Then Adriano makes one call to the bank Cattaneo Holdings uses, and it's done."

I read the first page and didn't touch the pen.

Father had told me what my grandfather's will said, and I had never been shown the paper.

I thought of the card in my pocket.

"I'd like to read this with a lawyer," I said.

"Family doesn't need lawyers." Father said it flat.

"Then you won't mind waiting while I read it."

Nobody spoke.

Fiorella set her hand on Father's arm. "Father, let her be. She hasn't been herself lately."

Mother caught Fiorella's hand in both of hers. "You're too good. That's why she walks all over you."

Adriano stood behind my sister the whole time, and what he gave me was plain impatience.

"It's a phone call, Mirella."

"Roselli and Cattaneo already do business together."

"Do you have to make it a scene?"

Fiorella lowered her eyes.

"Actually, the pipes burst in my building, and the water's off for days."

"I was going to stay at a hotel. Never mind. I won't bother you."

She made a call, and her driver brought a suitcase to the door within minutes.

Adriano put his hand on the suitcase handle before she could take it.

"A hotel? Your health isn't good."

"Stay here."

"There are hotels two blocks away," I said. "I'll book her one. I'll pay."

He didn't even look at me.

He carried the suitcase to the guest room, took the spare key from the kitchen drawer and pressed it into Fiorella's palm.

"Starting today, you live here."

"Come and go whenever you want. You don't have to watch anyone's face."

He turned to me, and his voice went cold. "She's your sister. This house has room for her."

I stood in the home I had painted and furnished with my own hands and watched my husband give another woman the key to my front door.

Not one person in my family thought it was strange.

Father left the guarantee on the table. "Friday," he said.

The moment the door shut behind them, I photographed every page of it.

Then I locked myself in the bathroom, turned on the tap and took the white card out of my robe pocket.

He answered on the first ring, with no hello.

"Mrs. Cattaneo."

The voice was low and unhurried.

"This is Mirella Roselli," I said.

"Yes. Don't sign anything."

He paused.

"The bank isn't short. They want your name on that paper, and nothing else."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend