I Was the Mafia's Maid, Now I'm Their Regret novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: His Page, Her Choice

After close we sat on the back stairs of the diner, with two mugs and the dumpster lids shut for the night.

The kitchen lights threw yellow squares across the alley.

Valerio held his mug and did not drink from it.

"Say it," I said. "You've been rehearsing all day."

"I resigned this morning."

I turned and looked at him.

"From what?"

"From the Family. The seat, the house in Ridgewood, the car. I gave the old man the keys at breakfast."

"Valerio."

"He tried to talk me out of it. He wheezed at me for an hour." He almost smiled. "He said the Family has never had a capo walk out the front and keep his hands."

"What did you say?"

"That I'd like to find out."

I put my mug down on the step.

"Why?"

"Because every dollar I have came out of that book." He kept his eyes on the alley. "The funeral, the apartment, my sister's school. Whatever you spent on my page, I'd still be a man whose life was lent to him."

"I didn't spend it to buy you."

"I know that. You never asked for anything, and I'm trying to learn what that costs."

"It's cost you a house."

"The house was a leash. I told you that."

He looked at me then.

"Your terms were nothing from me goes in a book. I wanted something of mine that wasn't in one either."

I had a hundred things I could have said.

I said the first true one.

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"I was hoping for the floor of a flat above a diner. I'll pay rent. Half my tips."

"You don't have tips."

"I'll get some."

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