Chapter 19: The Ring

The hearing room was small, with a beige carpet and a radiator that clanked.

There were two tables, one judge and about twenty plastic chairs, and every chair was full.

Word had gotten around.

Half the faces were strangers who had seen the video, and half were Ferraros.

Bridget sat on my left in her good coat.

Luca sat on my right, a careful inch away, with his hands folded on his knee.

Under the table, where nobody could see, his little finger hooked around mine.

It was all he did, and I thought about it for the next ten minutes.

Dante sat at the other table in a navy suit.

His lawyer was the smooth voice from the phone, a man with silver hair and a silver pen.

Gianna sat in the row behind them, with her arms wrapped around her coat.

The judge was a gray-haired woman with reading glasses on a chain.

She read the filing, took off her glasses and looked at me.

"Ms. Doyle. Mr. Ferraro's counsel says you left an engagement ring in a hotel and that it has not been returned. He says you may have it."

"I left it on a service cart, Your Honor," I said. "In the ballroom hallway. I haven't seen it since."

"Why did you leave it?"

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