Chapter 31: In Front of the Neighbors

Rosanna stood on the pavement outside the house on Hanover Street with one suitcase.

It was seven in the morning, and every window on the block had a face in it.

The table had kept her locked in the warehouse until the Don fell, in case Vittorio's lawyer needed a second liar.

Now he did not.

Gemma stepped out of the black car with the deed in her hand, and Raffaele got out behind her.

Rosanna's cream coat was creased, and her blonde bob had gone flat.

She had not smiled once since the car door opened.

"You wanted to see me," Gemma said.

"I wanted to say something."

"Say it."

Rosanna looked past her at the neighbors on their stoops.

A woman in a green robe held her coffee cup halfway to her mouth.

"I loved you," said Rosanna, loudly. "You must know that. I did everything for you from the day I came into that house."

"You took my phone."

"For safekeeping, sweetheart..."

"You wrote my name under a stranger's words, to a man you meant to have kill me."

Rosanna's mouth worked.

The woman on the stoop put her cup down.

"I made you tea," said Rosanna, in a smaller voice. "I pinned your veil."

"Yes," said Gemma. "You were very kind. Everybody on this street thought so."

She turned to the neighbors.

"This woman sold me to the Sandrellis, and then she tried to have me killed at the altar. She stole my mother's jewelry, and she lied for ten years."

"Mrs. Albertini?" said someone, with a shaky voice.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Merciless Contract: The Syndicate's Unwanted Wife from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.