Page 56 of Coerced Queen

She gives me a cutting look.

I peer around the curtain, addressing Rachele.“We’re good.”

Debra turns the open sign to closed and locks the door.

Livy tips her hat, letting me know she’ll watch the front.

Rachele steps into the private area.“You okay, Lena?”

Elena nods, swallowing audibly.“Let’s do this.”

I sit down opposite her and take out my phone.We agreed I’d film her message.She faces the camera squarely, delivering a short speech in a strong, confident voice.The message is to anyone willing to listen, telling them she came to Saverio for refuge to escape an abusive husband.And then she shocks me by going one step further and confessing that Raphael is behind the attack that killed so many men on my wedding day.

When she’s done, I save the recording and encrypt it like Dante taught me to do when I’m dealing with incriminating financial data before uploading it to an account in the Cloud that Livy has access to—in case something happens to me.

The exchange is done quickly and unremarkably.Elena hands me the inventory, and I give her the passport.

“When are you leaving?”I ask.

Her reply is snide.“What’s it to you?”

“I want to make sure you’re safely gone before Saverio targets Raphael.”

“As soon as I can.”She stands, glancing at Rachele over my shoulder.“My cousin can get me onto a flight as early as next week.”

I follow suit, getting to my feet.“I’ll wait until then.”

Pulling herself to her full height, Rachele says, “Make sure Raphael gets what he deserves.I want him to pay for what he did to Papa and Giorgio.”

Livy bustles inside, getting tangled in the curtain.She swats the velvet away to free herself.“What about Debra?”

“She’s the mother I never had,” Rachele says.“You don’t have to worry about her.”

Livy and I leave first.On the sidewalk, I almost bump into Tersia.

“Oh, hi,” she says, brushing her short curls from her face.“What are you doing here?”

Livy narrows her eyes.“Shopping.”

Tersia looks Livy over.“You look, um, nice.”

Livy only glares.

I take in Tersia’s flat stomach under her cashmere coat.“You’ve had the baby.”

“Two weeks ago.”She blooms.“We named her Amanda, but we call her Mandy.”

“That’s pretty,” I say.“I hope everything went okay?”

“Exactly as we hoped.We were lucky enough to have been able to follow our birth plan.”

“That’s good,” I say, my chest tightening when I think about the friend I lost and that I’ll never meet her baby.

“Listen.”Tersia hooks her hair behind her ears.“My meeting with my agent finished early, and I have a few minutes to spare.”She waves a hand toward the hotel next door.“Why don’t we have a cup of tea?”

I look at Livy.

“You go,” Livy says.“I better get back to the office to check if Dante managed diaper duty.For all we know, he put it on the wrong way around.”

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