The Moretti Daughter They Denied novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Year Ends
The year ended on a Thursday.
I had marked it on the calendar in the kitchen with a red pencil, and Fiorenza had crossed out each square after dinner without a word.
That morning she cooked enough for thirty and told me she was expecting nobody.
I went upstairs and took the contract out of the drawer in my room.
It was three pages, in Matteo's lawyer's type. The last page had my name on it in my left hand, and his in black ink.
I read the first term again.
One year of marriage.
I took a pen, and I wrote across the bottom of the page, and I signed it.
At six he came home.
He stopped in the hall when he saw the table. Fiorenza had put out the good cloth and the white candles, and the long dish of baked ziti.
"Who's coming?" he asked.
"Sit down," I said.
"Nora."
"Sit."
He sat at the head of the table, with his coat still on, and he watched my hands.
I laid the three pages in front of him.
"It's Thursday," I said. "The year is up."
His face didn't move. I saw the pulse in his jaw.
"Then you're free to go," Matteo said. "I won't stop you. The car is yours, and the money in the account is yours, and the doctor stays on whether you're in this house or not."
"I know."
"The marrow is holding. The doctor said so."
"I know that too."
"I'll carry your bags down myself."
"Matteo."
He went quiet.
"Read what I wrote," I said.
He turned the last page toward the candle.
Under the last clause, in my careful left hand, I had put one line.
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