After He Watched Me Drown, I Built My Empire novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Remo's POV

Remo's POV

I left Silvia asleep in the loft with her hand still curled where my shoulder had been.

I put the blanket over her and her father's folder under the pillow.

Then I went up to the big house in the dark, with six stitches pulling in my forehead.

The housekeeper let me in at the kitchen door.

She had been crying, and she did not say so.

"He's awake," she said. "He's been awake all night. He wouldn't take the pills until you came."

The old man's bedroom smelled of camphor and cold coffee.

They had moved his bed to the window, and he lay with the curtains open on the lake, and the first gray was in the sky.

He turned his head.

"You look terrible," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"Sit. For once."

I sat in the chair by the bed.

It was the first time in twelve years I had sat in his presence, and my knees did not know how.

"I heard about the water," he said. "She went in for you."

"She did."

"Good." His breath whistled. "I was afraid she would not. I have been afraid of a great many things this month. That was the last of them."

I said nothing.

"Do you hate me, Remo?"

It was an odd question.

I thought about it honestly, because he had earned that much.

"No, sir," I said. "I hate what I did. I haven't worked out yet what I think of you."

"That is fair." The corner of his mouth moved.

"You hold the phone because I tell you to hold it, and you go into the water because you can't help it. I knew both things about you when I gave the order."

He swallowed.

"That is the part I am not proud of."

"You gambled on me."

"I gambled on her. You were the only man on my payroll I trusted to do it correctly." He closed his eyes. "I'm telling you plainly because after tonight no one will."

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