Chapter 10: License Number

Leone didn't deny it.

He stood in the middle of his own ward with his shirt buttoned wrong and said, "Yes."

The inspector blinked, because he had expected an argument.

"Yes, to what?" he said.

"Yes, those forms carry my license number. I signed them."

I heard the nurse breathe in sharply behind me.

I kept my eyes on Leone's back.

He hadn't looked at me once since the door.

"Forty-one draws," the inspector said, reading. "Over what period?"

"From the first one until I resigned, three years ago."

"And the donor on every one of them?"

"Is standing behind me," Leone said.

The ward went silent.

Eleven patients, three inspectors, one old baker with a bread roll halfway to his mouth.

All of them turned to look at me.

I felt it then, for the first time since the gala.

It wasn't the thread of warmth from the bread, and it wasn't the heat from the night before.

It was cold, a clean, bright fury that started in my stomach and went all the way up my spine.

The front door opened behind the inspectors.

Fabrizio came in, alone, in a grey suit, with a man in a black overcoat holding a leather briefcase at his shoulder.

"Good morning," Fabrizio said gently. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

"You're not," I said.

I was surprised to hear how level my voice was.

"Gemma."

He took in my rumpled dress, my hair and Leone's wrong buttons.

A very small, very sad smile touched his mouth.

"I see."

"Don't."

"I'm not judging. I'm only grieved." He turned to the inspectors. "Gentlemen, my lawyer has a statement for the record."

The man in the black coat opened his briefcase.

"Dr. Barsi," he said, in the flat voice of someone paid by the hour, "is an unlicensed practitioner operating an unregistered ward."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Took My Love 99 Times. The 100th Time, He Lost Me Forever. from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.