The Mafia Wife's Revenge novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Blue Thread

Eighteen months later, I stood at the gate in the dawn cold with a letter in my hand.

It had come the night before, forwarded through Maeve, in a gray state envelope.

The address on the front was written in raised dots.

I knew the hand before I touched it.

Damian had gotten twenty-five years to life in the spring, and he had found a way to write me from the place they put him.

I ran my thumb over the dots.

I read braille now, because I had learned it properly, in daylight, from a teacher who did not lie.

It took me two seconds.

"I voluntarily forgive you."

I stood there and laughed until Maeve took the letter out of my fingers.

"What does it say?" she asked.

"He forgives me."

"For what?"

"I don't think he knows," I said.

Maeve held it up to the light.

Then she tore it in half, and in half again, and put the pieces in the bin beside the guard post.

"There," she said. "Now it's recycling."

Behind us the brother stood holding a paper sign in both hands.

He had drawn a large red heart on it and written WELCOME HOME CILLIAN in letters of different sizes.

"Is that spelled right?" he asked for the third time.

"It's perfect," I said.

He grinned.

He had a job at the firehouse kitchen now, and a room with a window, and a fear of dogs that he was slowly getting over.

He worked the grill on Saturdays and was the best dishwasher the clinic had ever seen.

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