He Scorned His Substitute Wife, Now He Begs Her Back novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: My Sister's Face

Mirella walked up the path with her chin high.

At the gate she stopped in front of Luca.

"Hello, Luca. You look terrible."

He didn't answer her.

He was looking past her shoulder at Livia on the porch, and he went on looking until Mirella stepped into his line of sight.

"I'm not coming back to you," Mirella said. "Don't look at me like I might."

"Where have you been?"

"Wherever you weren't." She glanced at the SUV. "Go home. I'll find you when I'm ready to be shouted at."

Luca stood in the drizzle with his shoes in his hand.

Then he got into the SUV and drove away without a word.

Zia Nella set down the spoon.

"Well," she said. "Two of you. I'll put on more eggs."

Mirella sat at the kitchen table with her coat on, and her hands didn't know what to do.

She had always been the one who knew what to do with her hands.

"I got off the plane and there were forty photographers at the gate," she said. "They called me Mrs. Benedetti and asked how it felt to be a monster. I went out through the baggage hall and paid a man two hundred dollars to drive me here."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't. I saw the post in the air, on the Wi-Fi. I knew it was you who'd been standing in for me, so I knew it wasn't me they meant." Mirella pushed the hair off her forehead. "Liv, what happened to your head?"

"I fell down the stairs."

"How?"

"Luca."

Mirella stood so fast the chair went over.

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