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Diana: You don’t need to do that!

Andrea: Sure I do. If I don’t, you’ll never get here lol.

Diana: I wish that weren’t true, but in this case, you don’t have to worry. Jason’s refusing to leave the house so if I don’t get out soon, I’ll probably brain him with a frying pan

Andrea: I have enough money to hire you a good lawyer…

Diana: Not helping, LMAO

CHAPTER 44

Savio

THREE YEARS LATER

Piano Sonata in B minor - Franz Liszt, Krystian Zimerman

The first time I heard them screwing in the barn, I let it go.

Hell, I’d been young once, and even in my fifties, Andrea and I fuck in there when the house is overflowing with teenagers and we need some space.

But, on this occasion, it’s different?—

“Eric! Stop!”

When our farmhanddoesn’tstop, when the woman cries out again, every single one of my protective instincts stirs to life.

I stride in, ready to strangle the bastard with my bare hands, but I immediately realize I got the wrong end of the stick.

The woman’s cry morphs into laughter as she twists on the hay, hissing and hopping—I think her foot fell asleep.

Either way, I get the hell out of there.

But I don’t forget.

Something in my brain doesn’t let me.

So I monitor him.

Days pass, and Roman flies through his homeschooling tests, surpassing his age group by two whole grades.

Arabella breaks her arm by falling off the gymnastics set we bought her, which I proceed to toss out despite both my daughters’ pleas.

Thiya stuns the entire family by playing Liszt’sSonata in B minoroff the top of her head—all thirty minutes of it.

Andrea and I go skinny dipping no less than three times.

Somehow, we end up taking in three parrots because an elderly neighbor had to move into an assisted living facility.

Andrea’s suspicions about the paper girl being bullied by someone on her route are confirmed when she has to quit thanks to a dislocated shoulder and the police come to take her statement.

Andrea even disappears for two days because Junia, Paolo Lorenzo’s wife, contacted her out of the blue and asked if she wanted to attend her niece’s wedding in Vegas.

Amid the chaos that is life with my wife, I hear about a girl in town who was raped.

Eric Roberts’ name gets whispered around.

And Iknow.

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