He Mocked the Voice I Ruined to Save Him novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Quarter

Dario's POV

The Sartori house stood on the point, white and old, with a lawn that ran down to the water.

A maid showed me to a sunroom full of orchids.

Mrs. Sartori sat at a small table with a silver tea service. She was eighty, upright, and dressed in gray.

She did not rise.

"Mr. Ricci," she said. "Sit."

I sat.

She poured two cups with a steady hand. I did not touch mine.

Five years ago this woman had stood over a burn ward bed in Chicago with her grandson. She had cried, and I had thanked her for it.

"You came alone," she said. "Good."

"You asked."

"I ask very little of people. When I do, they give it." She added a lump of sugar. "My grandson tells me your fiancée believes some foolish things."

"My fiancée believes what she saw."

"What she saw was a girl's fever dream in a burning building." She stirred. "She was seventeen and starved of air. She did not know who she was dragging."

"She knew she was dragging someone."

"And she never learned his name." She tapped the spoon on the rim. "That is the beauty of it, Mr. Ricci. Nobody but this family knows what happened in that loft."

The door opened behind me.

Stefano came in with a glass of juice in his hand, smiling.

"Don't get up," he said, and clapped me on the shoulder.

I did not look at him.

"Dario, my friend. Thank you for the payment on Monday. It arrived in perfect order."

"I make my payments."

"You do." He sat on the arm of his grandmother's chair. "I told my banker it was the most reliable account we have."

He laughed.

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