Page 59 of Till Death Do Us Part

She said it so casually, like it was no big deal. I had to force my feet to move behind her. She told me to have a seat at the kitchen table, but I refused. I told her I’d wash while she put the food away. She set an apron around her neck and then one around mine. She gave me a pair of rubber gloves.

“I didn’t know your mamma, but she did a great job with you,” she said.

I thanked her and told her Mamma had a massive heart attack.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” she said. “I’m always here if you ever need someone. Even if it’s just a hug.”

The sincerity in her tone touched my heart. She didn’t have to like me, after my father had refused her husband life-saving care, but she still seemed to.

“So…Cassio and Felice might be brothers?” I asked to change the subject.

She scraped the veggie lasagna in an empty butter container. “You can take this home. We like meat around here. Oh. Yeah. But remember, this is Vegas’ rules. What we talk about in this kitchen stays in this kitchen.”

I nodded and lifted my right hand.

She laughed. “I think John knows, but not Cassio. His Pop was a friend of Sal’s.”

Again, her tone was so blasé. My face must have been transparent, because she tried to hide herpoor naïve childsmile from me.

“I’m sure John’s business is no secret to you. You’re a smart girl. You’ve put two and two together. Sal’s business was the same. It’s just what they do. Though Sal pushed the limits. If I would have known back then, or even suspected, I probably would have made a fuss. She was a friend, you know? I understood the mistresses. But not her.

“I sat at her table and ate dinner. She sat at mine and broke bread and drank wine. It hurt when I connected the pieces. Sal left Cassio some of his inheritance. Cassio assumed it was because his Pop had died, and Sal was a good friend. I’ve come to terms with it now, though.” She looked around. “I forgot the bomboloni in the dining room. The box keeps them fresher. Be right back.”

It was hard to put myself in Corrina's shoes. All Felice had done was bring Margot to the gala, and the jealousy turned my insides ugly. How would it feel to know mistresses were a normal part of his life? I wasn’t okay with it. It was something I’d have to talk to Felice about.

Corrina came back in and set the platter down on the counter, then handed me my phone. “I heard it going off. It hasn’t stopped. Might be important.”

I’d left my purse in Felice’s car but had tucked my phone in my coat pocket. I had ten missed calls and countless text messages from Lo and Elsa.

Before I could open them, my phone rang.

Lo.

“Y? Y! Why haven't you been answering your phone?”

“It was in my coat pocket, and I didn’t hear it. Why? What's wrong?”

Corinna was placing the bomboloni back in the box, but I could tell she was listening.

“Where are you? Never mind. I don't even want to know. But you need to get to Elsa's. Isa showed up at her house.”

Chapter20

Felice

Smoke billowed out of Cassio’s front door as he opened it for me. He waved a kitchen towel, trying to fan some of it out.

“I was trying to bake cookies with Adelasia.” He stepped to the side to let me in.

“You might want to try again.”

“Ma took over. There's no fucking domesticating me. And a little girl likes to bake cookies and decorate them around the holidays. Or so I've been told.”

Saucy, a little white dog that had been Cassio's wife's, ran after me, barking as we made our way to his office. He offered me a drink from his wet bar, but I declined, taking a seat on his leather sofa.

“I only have a few minutes.” I looked at my watch. “You said this was important.”

“Daddy saddled her with a curfew?” he asked as he poured himself a drink.

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