Never Cross the Mafia Don's Hidden Lover novel · Chapter 7 of 32
Chapter 7: Twenty-Four Hours
"No," I said.
Elio looked up from the screen.
"No what?"
"No lake."
I went into my father's office.
His stethoscope still hung on the hook behind the door, where it had hung every night for thirty years.
The tubing was cracked.
The bell was worn silver where his thumb had rubbed it.
I took it down and brought it back and held it out.
"Put your hand on this."
"Viola."
"You promised me nobody touches Trent. Now promise me nobody touches anybody. No body in the lake, no accident on the Shoreway, until a jury has that bullet."
"And if the jury never gets it?"
"Then I was wrong, and you can tell me so every day for the rest of my life."
He looked at the stethoscope in my hand for a long time.
Then he put his palm flat over the bell.
His hand was warm and much bigger than my father's.
"No body," he said. "Until a jury has it."
"Swear."
"I swear on your father's stethoscope, Doctor. I've never sworn on anything that smelled like dog."
I hung it back up.
My hands were shaking, so I put them in my pockets.
The next morning, the bank officer called to remind me I had twenty-three days.
"Unless the co-signer returns," he said, in the voice of a man reading a card.
"He won't," I said.
"Then the bank would need to see forty thousand dollars in a reserve account by July eighth to consider keeping the note open without him."
I wrote 40,000 on the back of my hand in pen.
Elio saw it at dinner.
"I'll have it wired tomorrow."
"No."
"It's nothing to me."
"That's why. I'm not taking money from the man everyone already thinks I left my husband for."
Keep reading free with an account. Start Never Cross the Mafia Don's Hidden Lover from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →
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