He Mocked the Voice I Ruined to Save Him novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Ashes

The boathouse lot had been a black square for five years, and nobody had built anything on it.

The harbor wind pushed rusted chain along the concrete. At the far end, one wall still stood, charred to the height of a man.

Stefano was waiting beside it with his hands in his pockets.

I walked toward him across the cracked slab, and I did not hurry.

Dario had parked at the end of the road, a hundred yards back, with the engine off and my phone line open in his ear.

My phone sat in my coat pocket. The recording button was on.

"Gi," Stefano said softly. "You came."

"You said you wanted to apologize."

"I do." He took a step toward me, then stopped when I did not step back. "Not in front of my grandmother. Not in front of the bosses. Just us. Right where it started."

I looked at the burned wall.

"Go on," I said.

He lowered his head.

"I was a coward. I laughed because everybody laughed. I hated it in the second I did it. You have to believe that."

"Do I?"

"I love you." He lifted his eyes, and they were wet. "Lidia is business. Your father needed the treaty, and I was weak. But you know me. You know what is real between us."

"What is real between us?" I asked.

"The fire." His voice dropped. "You pulled me out. Nobody else would have. I have never forgotten it for one day."

I let the silence stretch.

I could hear the wind in the burned beams. I could hear my own pulse.

"You told me the second man died," I said.

Stefano went still.

"In the loft," I said. "The one I went back for. You said he died in the ambulance."

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