No Matter, You Don't Have to Wait for Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Second Coat

Gemma sat down on the arm of the chair, still in the white robe, and held the cat against her chest.

"She knows what I am," she said. "She watched me say it."

"She also drove here," Donovan said from the door. "People who want you gone don't bring coats."

Gemma looked at me.

I did not have a better argument than that.

"You can say no," I told her. "I'll go down and tell her you're asleep."

"She'd wait in the car until morning."

"Probably."

"Okay." Gemma pulled the robe tighter. "Okay. Let her come up."

Donovan went to get her.

Gemma put on her jeans and her sweater in the bathroom in under a minute, and came out standing very straight.

Dario's mother filled the doorway in a camel coat with a second coat over her arm.

It was a long green wool one, heavy, with the tags still on.

She did not look at me, or at Donovan.

She looked at Gemma's face for a long moment.

"You have his eyes," she said. "I sat across from them for an hour today, and I only saw it when he put his hand on the door."

Gemma's chin shook.

"Mrs. Benedetti, I'm so sorry. I never wanted to take anything from you."

"Stop." She held up one hand. "Don't apologize in my hearing. You were fifteen when your mother died. For twelve years my husband sent money, and not one of the men who knew about you thought to tell me."

She laid the green coat over the chair.

"This is for the bridge. It's cold on the bridge. I don't know your size, so I bought it big."

Gemma put her hand on the collar and left it there.

"Now I'm going to ask you something," the older woman said. "And you can lie if you like, I won't be able to tell."

"I won't lie."

"What do you want?"

Gemma opened her mouth and closed it again.

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