The Don's Wife Never Looks Back novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Not Yet

"Properly," I said into the phone.

"Her word," the reporter said. "Do you want to respond?"

"Yes. Spell my name right on Saturday."

I hung up and went back inside to Mama's table, and I didn't tell anyone until the dishes were done.

On Wednesday a courier came to Mama's door with a thick envelope from Santino's lawyer.

Inside was the deed to the house in Lake Forest.

It had been transferred into my name.

There was a note clipped to it in Santino's square handwriting.

It's yours whether you live in it or not. Sell it. Burn it. E.

I put it on the hall table beside the brass key and went to work.

At four that afternoon I came back from the city permit office, and Nathaniel was sitting on the roof.

He only sat on the roof when a client wanted a Tuscan villa.

I climbed the ladder.

He had one beer, unopened, and he was turning it in his hands.

"He came here," Nathaniel said. "An hour ago. Alone. No driver, no secretary. He walked in and sat in your chair."

I sat down beside him against the chimney.

"What did he want?"

"To buy you." Nathaniel said it flatly. "Through me. He was very civilized about it."

"Tell me."

"The Cermak permit comes back tomorrow. The library comes back. The dentist comes back, God help me. Plus a number he wrote on the back of my own business card." He took the card out of his shirt pocket and showed me. "It's a lot of zeros. More than this building."

"And?"

"And I tell you that this studio is going under because of you, and you can't stay. And you go home to Lake Forest, where he's put the house in your name so you can feel like you're choosing it."

I looked at the card.

Then I looked at him.

"What did you say?"

"I said I'd think about it." Nathaniel turned the beer over. "Then I thought about it, and I told him to get out of your chair."

I laughed.

It came out wet.

"He said I'd regret it," Nathaniel said. "I said I regret lots of things. Mostly the cactus."

"Why are you up here, then?"

"Because I wanted to tell you before I talked myself into thinking I should've taken it for your sake." He finally looked at me. "I'm not going to take anything for your sake. You'd hate me."

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