The Don's Runaway Substitute novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Everything He Used

I left the actress asleep on Fio's couch, with Fio sitting on the arm of it holding a rolling pin.

Then I drove to the lake house and walked in past the guard without giving him my phone.

He did not stop me.

Vincenzo was sitting on the edge of our bed in the dark, still in his dinner jacket, with his bowtie hanging loose.

He looked up when I came in, and I saw how long he had been waiting.

"She's dead," I said.

He closed his eyes.

"Allegra Pozzi is dead, and you knew."

"Yes."

One word, and the floor went out from under me.

I had thought some part of me would still be hoping.

"How long?"

"Three years." He opened his eyes. "Dario had her killed. I found out five weeks afterward. I've never been able to prove it."

"Three years." My voice cracked. "You've known for three years."

"Yes."

"You apologized to her in your sleep."

"Because she came to me the week before it happened." His hands were open on his knees. "She said she'd seen something in Dario's books. She asked me to listen. I told her I was busy and that she was tired."

He swallowed.

"She died because I didn't listen."

I wanted to go to him.

I stayed where I was.

"And me?" I asked. "Where do I come in?"

"I met you the same week," he said. "At your flower stall. I'd gone there to bury a woman, in a way, and I bought white roses, and you wrapped them and told me the stems would last longer if I cut them at an angle."

I remembered that.

I had thought nothing of it.

"I didn't know what you looked like until you looked up," he said. "I walked away without paying, and I came back the next day to pay."

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