Chapter 4: The Soup Jar

Bruna lifted the cloth off the basket.

Inside were prenatal vitamins, ginger candy, a knitted blanket, and a jar of her own tomato soup.

"For the sickness," she said. "I had it for four months with my son."

Tillie stood at the end of the counter with the shears in her hand and watched her.

"Thank you," I said.

"Please don't thank me. I stood in your kitchen and handed you that bottle, and I will never forgive myself."

Her eyes were wet.

"Cesare told me it was the only way to know you were honest," she said. "I thought it was cruel, and I did it anyway. He's my brother."

"You thought the test was cruel."

"I thought you'd say no. I thought you'd throw it in my face."

She wiped her eyes with her thumb.

"You didn't take them, did you?"

I kept my face still.

I had kept it still for years behind a bar, in front of men who wanted a free drink.

"I flushed every one," I said.

"Good." She let out a breath. "Good girl. They're strong. A child could get into them, so I'm glad."

"You should have told me they were strong before I held them."

"I know."

"What are they, exactly?"

"Laxatives," Bruna said. "I told you."

"I know what you told me."

She smiled, a small tired smile with nothing behind it.

"Did you keep the bottle?"

Tillie's shears stopped moving.

"It went out with the trash," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Don Played Broke to Test Me, So I Left With His Baby from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.