Sweet Temptation novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Nursery Floor

Cesare crossed the kitchen and went down on one knee in front of his son.

I had never seen him do that.

I don't think Tommaso had, either.

"Say it again," Cesare said.

"A man in a gray coat. He took Mama's keys."

"Did you see his face?"

"Only his back." The boy's voice cracked. "I was on the stairs. You said it was a dream."

"I said that because I wanted it to be."

Cesare's hand rested on his son's thin shoulder, and it wasn't quite steady.

"I believe you," he said.

Tommaso's face crumpled and smoothed again, fast.

"Then why do they all say?"

"Because it's easier for them than the truth. Listen to me now."

He waited until the boy looked up.

"You tell this to nobody. Not Vito, not your teacher, not the priest. Nobody but me, or Elisa."

"Why?"

"Because it could get you hurt."

He stood and picked up his son, and carried him out.

I stood alone in the kitchen with a glass of water I had forgotten to drink.

The man who had let a drunk captain call his dead wife a grave had just told his nine-year-old he believed him.

I could not make the two men fit into one.

At two in the morning, Sofia screamed.

It wasn't a cry.

It was a long raw scream that went up the stairwell and through the whole house, and I was out of bed before I was awake.

She was sitting up in the nursery, wide-eyed, and nobody was there.

The night nurse had been dismissed the week before, I would learn, because the child wouldn't let her touch her.

"I'm here," I said. "I'm here, Sofia."

She stared past me at the dark.

I picked her up, quilt and rabbit and all, and she did not fight.

She was shaking so hard her teeth clicked.

I sat on the floor with my back against the bed and held her, and told her a long, nonsensical story about a rabbit who owned a boat.

I don't know when she stopped shaking.

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