The Last Time You Chose Her novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: Fausta's Dress
Marta's POV
Ugo came on Thursday night with a manila envelope and no pocket watch.
He sat down at Fausta's table in his grey suit, and for the first time in my life he looked like a man with nowhere to be.
"I gave your mother my keys," he said. "I never knew how heavy they were until I put them down."
"Are you all right, Ugo?"
"I'm sixty-three and unemployed." He almost smiled. "Eat something, Marta, you look like a coat hanger."
Fausta put a plate of pasta in front of him without being asked.
He ate two bites, wiped his glasses, and slid the envelope across the cloth.
"The guard roster for your wedding day."
I opened it.
It was a printed schedule on the Sartorelli letterhead, with six names down the left and a car number beside each.
"Read the top line," Ugo said.
The chief of the escort was a man I had known since I was twelve.
His name was crossed out, and a different name had been typed above it.
"Who's that?"
"A man from a security firm in Trenton. He drove the lead car and he was paid three times his rate." Ugo tapped the page. "Your old chief was sent to Florida on the Tuesday before the wedding. A paid holiday, for his bad back."
"Who signed it?"
He turned the page over.
At the bottom, in blue ink, there was a small round signature with a little heart drawn over the i.
I had watched her sign birthday cards with that heart for twenty years.
"I took the page from your mother's desk," Ugo said. "She didn't notice. She hasn't looked at a paper since the clinic."
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