Sweet Temptation novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Shoebox

"You know," I repeated.

"I've known since before you walked into that church."

Cesare stood, picked up the phone, and put the vial in his desk drawer.

He turned the key.

"Come with me."

He didn't touch me, and he didn't wait to see if I'd follow.

I followed.

We climbed the east stairs together in silence.

At the end of the corridor, he took the spare key from his pocket and opened the dead woman's door.

The room was just as I'd left it.

The dead flowers on the table, the jasmine, the dim light through drawn curtains.

He crossed to the dressing room and I stayed in the doorway.

He sat on the bench in front of the vanity, with the black phone in his hands.

"I found this a year ago," he said. "The housekeeper was dusting the high shelf. A shoebox fell, and the tape gave way."

"And you put it back."

"I put it back, because I knew your father's men searched this house twice that first winter and found nothing. If it had been in my safe, they'd have found it. In a dead woman's shoebox, nobody looks."

His thumb found a button on the side.

"Sit down, Elisa."

I sat on the edge of the sofa with my hands clenched in my lap.

He tapped the screen, and a voice came out of the speaker.

It was small and tinny, a call recorded three years ago, and I knew it before the first sentence ended.

"It's me," said my father. "You're right to be worried about the money, and I'm glad you came to me instead of him."

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