Poisoned by His Love novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Coffee With Ruggero

Ruggero Orsini sat in the corner of the St. Brigid's cafeteria with a paper cup of tea and a white envelope.

He looked out of place in a gray overcoat among the nurses on their lunch breaks.

I walked over in my scrubs with my badge swinging.

I did not sit.

"You have ten minutes," I said. "I have a patient on a ventilator."

"Sit, signora. It will not take ten."

I sat on the edge of the chair.

He slid the envelope across the table.

"Open it."

"What is it?"

"A cashier's check for two hundred thousand dollars. And a plane ticket to Seattle, one way, in any name you like."

I stared at him.

"You're trying to buy me."

"I am trying to save you."

"From my husband."

"From what he is."

He leaned forward on his elbows.

"I have watched this man for two years."

"He kept my sister in a room and nobody saw her for seven months."

"She was sick."

"She was healthy at the wedding."

"She was strong."

"Eleven weeks into the marriage, her hair began to fall."

"By spring she could not hold a cup."

"Doctors..."

"Doctors said nerves, then a virus, then an autoimmune thing with a long name."

"None of it helped."

"And in all that time, only one person gave her food and drink."

I knew where he was going.

I had been going there myself since last night.

"Everything she ate, he cooked," Ruggero said.

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