The Moretti Daughter They Denied novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Terms

Nora walks out of the Moretti house with Matteo Ravello, sets her terms in his car and eats at his grandmother's table; at midnight he shows her her own hospital file.

Nobody stopped me.

Salvatore stood at the head of the table with his hand flat on the cloth.

Antonella's smile stayed exactly where it was, and Carmela kept filming until I walked past her.

I took my coat off the hook in the hall.

It was the only thing in that house I had paid for myself.

Matteo Ravello held the front door open. His two men went down the steps ahead of us.

I didn't look back at the dining room, and I didn't say goodbye to the Morettis.

The car was black and warm, and it smelled of leather and a little of cloves.

Matteo sat on the other side of the back seat with his gloves on his knee.

We were three blocks from the house before either of us spoke.

"You didn't ask what I want from the marriage," he said.

"I don't care what you want," I said. "I'll tell you what I want."

He turned his head.

"One year," I said. "Not a day more, and you don't ask for a day more."

"One year," Matteo said.

"Separate rooms."

"Yes."

"You don't touch me unless I say so."

His eyes stayed on my face. "Yes."

"I keep my doctor appointments, and you never ask me what they're for."

He was quiet for one beat longer than he had been for the others.

"Agreed," he said. "I have one."

"Go on."

"You eat at my table every night. Whatever else happens, you eat."

I almost laughed. Nobody had ever bargained to feed me.

"Fine," I said.

He nodded once, and looked out the window.

"You're not what I expected," he said.

I knew what that meant. He had wanted Carmela, with her highlights and her phone, and he had been handed the girl from the pots.

I turned my face to my own window and said nothing.

The Ravello house was a narrow brownstone on the North Side, with a green door and a light burning in the kitchen at the back.

A small woman in a black cardigan stood at the stove with flour on her wrists.

"This is my grandmother," Matteo said. "Fiorenza."

"So you're the Moretti girl." She looked me up and down, and her mouth went flat. "You're thin. Sit."

"I'm fine, thank you. I don't want to be a trouble."

"Sit," she said again.

I sat, and a bowl of pasta with butter and black pepper landed in front of me before I'd folded my hands.

Nobody in the Moretti house had ever cooked something for me and then watched me eat it.

I ate all of it.

When I finished, I stood, picked up the bowl and carried it to the sink.

"What are you doing?" Fiorenza said.

"Washing it."

She took it out of my hands. "Guests don't wash dishes."

"I'm not a guest. I'm a year."

Fiorenza looked at her grandson, and Matteo looked at the ceiling.

"Sit," she said for the third time. "You're at my table. Tonight you're a guest."

She gave me a second bowl.

Matteo showed me to a room on the second floor.

It had a high bed, a lamp and a lock on the inside of the door.

"The key's in the drawer," he said. "My room's at the other end of the hall."

"Thank you."

He stayed in the doorway a moment longer.

"Goodnight, Nora," he said, and shut the door.

I lay on top of the blanket in my coat.

It was the quietest room I had ever slept in.

For the first time since the doctor's office, I cried, with my face in the pillow so no one would hear.

It was after midnight when somebody knocked.

I wiped my face and opened the door a crack.

Matteo stood in the hall in his shirtsleeves. He held a manila folder in one hand.

I recognized the clinic's name on the tab before I could read anything else.

"You said I could never ask what your appointments are for," he said. "I'm not asking."

He held the folder out.

"You're dying," he said. "You said yes to me anyway."

← 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