Chapter 14: The Doorway

Elio believed Gemma for half a second too long.

He knew it as it happened, and he hated it.

His wife stood at the head of the stairs in her gray dress, with her hands loose and her eyes wide.

She looked like a woman who had just been called a liar by someone she met four hours ago.

Gemma was crying hard, and Gemma's tears had never once failed.

For three years they had been the fastest way to make him do anything.

"She looked at the photograph," Gemma sobbed. "She looked at it and she didn't blink. Nobody stays calm at their own proposal."

Footsteps came down the upstairs hall.

Luca arrived first, then Elio's father-in-law, with a napkin still tucked in his collar.

"What is this?" the old man said.

"Gemma says Chiara remembers," Elio said.

"Of course she doesn't." The old man looked at Chiara once, without interest. "I paid for that treatment. It's permanent."

"Then why is Gemma saying this?"

"Because Gemma is a nervous child, and tonight was hard."

Gemma's sobs grew louder.

Luca said, "Elio. Test her. Ask her something only she would know."

"No," Elio said.

"Why not?"

"Because it's the one thing she asked me for." He kept his voice quiet. "Three steps, and no questions about before. If I break that, she leaves."

"She's pretending, you idiot."

"Then she can pretend in peace."

He climbed the stairs until he was three steps short of Chiara, and he stopped.

"Do you want to go home?" he said.

She blinked at him.

"To Taylor's," she said. "Yes. Please."

Taylor was parked at the curb with the engine running and a cat carrier on the passenger seat.

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