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Casa Nera staff rushed up and down the stairs, hauling up boxes upward and returning empty-handed. Their destination was the new room I was to share with Renato. I hurried after them, pausing on the threshold as I took in the scene before me. Boxes of all shapes and sizes had been put on the bed, the floor, basically any surface they could fit on. It was quite the sight to see hulking men in dark suits, with earpieces, trying to balance five shoeboxes at once.
“What is all this?” I asked.
“Deliveries from the boutiques in La Leonora,” Sonny said and grinned. “Boss knows how to go all out.” He looked proud, like buying more than a year’s worth of clothes for someone was normal.
I sent everyone away as soon as all the packages were in the room. I felt bad enough they’d to go out of their way to carry them all upstairs. I could have done it alone, but it would have taken me the better part of a day.
I lingered in the doorway for a long moment, feeling like an intruder. An imposter. The pretend wife.
“Nice haul.” Giada peered over my shoulder. “Ren has good taste, though a little conservative, but maybe you like that. To be real, he’s not letting you out of the house in anything too short or revealing. You just have to accept that.”
“I don’t like showy stuff,” I murmured my gaze tracing over the well-known designer brands emblazoned across the shiny bags.
“Of course you don’t. He gets you. It’s almost kind of sweet.”
“It is not,” I argued back faintly. I couldn’t even fathom the cost of everything in the room. It was the kind of extravagance I had no experience with. Never mind buying designer clothes; I usually struggled to justify buyingnewclothes and not getting something from Goodwill.
“Something Renato De Sanctis will never be is sweet,” I continued, edging into the room. I peered inside one of the bags and looked up at Giada. “It’s shoes.”
“Why are you whispering? Are you scared they’ll hear you?” she replied in a loud mock whisper.
She reached into the box and opened it. A beautiful pair of flat, chestnut-brown leather riding boots emerged. Perfect for the weather, and so classic and beautiful, I had to touch the smooth surface.
Giada handed them to me and then turned and glanced at the rest of the room, packed with boxes and dress bags. “Okay, I suggest this. I’ll open, and you sort. Deal?”
“Is this really all for me? Maybe we should check before we open it all?”
Giada frowned at me for a moment and then laughed. “Oh, Charlie, I seriously never know what you’re going to say. No shit, it’s for you. You are wife of the boss now; you can’t keep walking around in Carmella’s old leggings. Relax and let your husband spend his money on you. You deserve it, and you need to internalize that thought.”
“Great, the criminal is giving me self-help advice now?” I muttered.
Giada cackled. “I sure am. Now help me, or I’m taking those boots as payment.”
I gripped the boots to my chest, and she laughed again.
“That’s the spirit. Learn to be selfish for once in your life. There aren’t any prizes in Heaven for being the most self-sacrificing. That’s just a myth.”
I rolled my eyes, but a sense of excitement ran through me that I couldn’t deny. Just the idea of having my own clothes again was more than appealing, but beautiful, soft, unworn clothes? As ashamed as I might be to admit it, I was excited.
We dug into the boxes.
I found a note inside a soft bag full of lingerie. The folded piece of paper was like a grenade, exploding my tentative happiness. Giada had gone for snacks, and I was tackling the more personal items alone. The underwear sets I’d already unpacked were beautiful in a way I’d never known underwear could be. The voice in my head that I recognized as one of the sisters at Mercy Home was immediately critical.What a waste of money.But the woman inside me, the one who never bought herself anything new, loved it.
My hand closed around the piece of paper at the bottom of the satin bag. I pulled it out.
Who would put a note in here?My fingers shook as I unfolded it.
We have his phone last pinged in your apartment block, and we have her guilty, tearful testimony about his disappearance in the books. Don’t test us. Choose a side. V
“Okay,I know I went for food, but I brought margaritas,” Giada sang loudly as she sailed into the room holding a tray with a huge jug of pink liquid and two glasses.
“What’s wrong?” She stopped immediately, taking in my stricken expression.
“Nothing,” I lied, feeling sick.
“It’s clearly not nothing.” Giada sighed and set down the tray, pouring two glasses of pink margaritas. She handed me one. “I’m just going to assume you found the bag of toys.”
I was gulping down my drink and nearly choked. “Toys?”
