The Don's Widow Carries His Heir novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Cufflinks

Nick came in behind me and stopped with the door still open.

The bell over it kept ringing.

"Close the door, Nicky," Paolo said. "You're letting the heat out."

Nick closed it.

He didn't come any further.

He leaned on the wall by the coat hooks where he could see the whole room, and he put his hands in his pockets.

The bakery was half full.

Two old men sat with espresso by the window.

A mother rocked a stroller, and three nurses in scrubs were buying a box for the night shift.

Everybody on Atwells knew who Paolo Carbone was.

Everybody had stopped chewing.

I took off my coat and hung it up.

I tied on my apron.

Then I walked over and stood at his table.

"You have a minute," I said.

He smiled.

He had very white teeth and they were all a little too even.

"I'll be quick. I'm sorry for your loss. Truly. Massimo and I didn't get along, but nobody wants it to end like that."

"Like what?"

"In a hospital bed." He spread his hands. "Very sad."

"You know a lot about how it ended for a man who wasn't there."

He tilted his head.

"I hear things. It's a small city." He tapped the table. "Here's what I came to say. The Hill is a lot for a widow. All those shops. All those families. Those old men at the club who'll fight over you like a pork chop."

"Thank you for your concern."

"I'll make it easy. I'll buy it. All of it. The restaurants, the club, the lots on Spruce Street."

He named a number. It was about a third of what any of it was worth.

"You keep your little bakery. You raise your baby in peace. Nobody bothers you ever again."

So Marisa had already called him about the baby.

Before I'd even gotten home.

"That's a generous offer," I said.

"I'm a generous man."

He reached for his coffee cup.

His cuff slid back.

And I saw them.

Gold cufflinks. Square, with a little black stone set in each corner.

I'd had them made at a jeweler in the Arcade for our wedding day.

The backs were engraved L to M, in my handwriting, copied off a napkin.

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