He Scorned His Substitute Wife, Now He Begs Her Back novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Real Three Million

The doorman at the Carrano building took one look at Livia's gray coat and picked up the house phone before she reached the desk.

"They're expecting you, Miss Carrano," he said.

It was the first time anyone in that building had called her by her name.

Mirella walked in beside her and did not slow down.

"I'm doing the talking first," she said in the elevator. "You've been quiet in that apartment for twenty years. Let me be loud for once."

The penthouse door was open.

Her mother stood in the living room in pearls, with a glass of wine she wasn't drinking.

Her father sat in the armchair by the window, with his hands between his knees and his eyes on the carpet.

Nobody had put out coffee.

"Sit down," her mother said.

"No," said Mirella.

"Mirella."

"You told Liv she'd get three million. You told her that for three years. It was my trust, Mother. You spent my money to buy her."

Her mother turned the wine glass a quarter turn on its stem.

"I did what a mother has to do," she said. "You ran. Somebody had to go to that altar, and she was the only one who looked like you. I never hid that I was grateful."

"You gave her a bus ticket," Livia said.

Her mother looked at her for the first time.

"I gave you a roof for three years. Good clothes. A name that opened doors, which is more than a girl raised in a farmhouse had any right to."

"It was your daughter's name."

"It was a Carrano name. You are a Carrano."

"Then say it," Livia said. "Say it like you mean it. Say I'm your daughter."

Her mother's mouth worked.

"I carried you," she said finally. "I nearly died carrying you, and I was ill for a year, and nobody asked how I felt. I sent you away because I couldn't look at you without remembering it. That's the truth. It isn't a crime."

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