Sacrificed To The Don They Now Regret novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Double Knot

They cut the vial out of the lining in the study, under the green lamp, with my mother's black suitcase open on the desk.

I stood in the doorway in Lorenzo's shirt with my hair still tangled from his hands.

Nobody told me to leave.

The consigliere held the thing up in tweezers.

It was a glass tube no longer than my finger, sealed with wax, and full of clear liquid.

"The chemist is on the phone," he said to Lorenzo. "He tested a drop on a rat. It was dead before he finished writing the time."

"What is it?"

"Something that has no taste and no color. A spoonful in a glass of wine and a man doesn't finish the glass."

Lorenzo said nothing.

He was staring at the stitches in the lining where the tube had been.

They were small, even and neat, a seamstress's work.

I knew those stitches.

My mother had hemmed every dress I owned.

"Livia," Lorenzo said without looking up.

"That's my mother's sewing."

"Say that again."

"Those are her stitches," I said. "She does a double knot at the end. Every time. She taught me."

The consigliere turned the lining toward the lamp.

At the end of the seam, there was a double knot.

Nobody breathed.

I walked into the room.

My legs were working, though I could not feel them.

I picked up the vial from the tweezers before anybody could stop me.

"Livia," Lorenzo said sharply.

"Do you think I knew?"

"Put it down."

"Do you think I came into your house with this? Do you think I sat across from you for five days, ate off your plate and let you into my bed, knowing this was in my bag?"

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