I Vanished with the Don's True Heir novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: The Roof

Livio didn't argue.

He just put the key in his pocket and said, "Then I'd better see the room."

"He's going to be a problem," Orsola said.

"He's been a problem for two years."

"Not like this." She turned off the sign. "Now he's my problem too."

The road opened two days later.

Livio didn't leave.

He called nobody. Orsola gave him a canvas coat from the lost and found that smelled like bait.

On the first morning he came into my kitchen at five thirty and reached for an apron.

"No," I said.

"I can crack an egg."

"Not in here."

Orsola took him by the elbow and walked him back out.

"You want to be useful," she said, "the blast lifted half the flashing off the kitchen roof, and the storm took the rest. There's a ladder in the storeroom."

So my husband spent three days on a roof in Maine in February, with a hammer and his mother.

I could hear them over the grill.

Bang. Bang. "Not like that." Bang. "Like that." Bang.

On the fourth afternoon, Orsola came down to get more nails and didn't go back up.

She put a thermos of coffee in my hands.

"He hasn't eaten since breakfast," she said. "Take it to him."

"You take it."

"My knees are fifty-nine. Yours are twenty-seven."

The roof over the kitchen was flat and black, with the whole bay laid out past it.

Livio was on his knees by the vent stack with a mouthful of nails.

When he saw me come up through the hatch, he spat them into his palm and stood.

"You shouldn't be on a ladder."

"It's bolted to the wall."

"You're six months pregnant."

"Five and a half." I held out the thermos. "Your mother says eat."

He took it.

← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend