Chapter 1: The Plate Between Us
The bread stayed close to Alessandro's hand after the last thing he said. It was not touching his fingers anymore. He had pulled it back like it could hear us.
The butter slid toward the white gold rim of the plate in a yellow line. Sunlight made it shine. I watched that instead of his face because his face had changed.
He set the bread down.
Not on the plate. Beside it, on the marble.
“Don't touch it,” he said.
I hugged Rabbit tighter. The rabbit’s beige ear pressed against my cheek. “I wasn't going to.”
“I know.” His voice was quiet. “I need you to keep your hands right there.”
He pointed to my cardigan, not like a command. More like he was giving me something simple to do.
I put both hands around Rabbit.
For a moment, nobody moved. The room was too bright for what we had been saying. The windows showed trees and a pale strip of sky. Somewhere beyond the dining room, water ran in a pipe and stopped.
Alessandro looked at the bread, then at me. His wristwatch caught the light when he reached toward the plate. He did not pick it up.
“Did she see you?” he asked.
I nodded.
His jaw tightened, but he didn't raise his voice. “She smiled and told me grown-ups have secrets.”
I looked down at Rabbit's stitched nose. “She gave me money to stay quiet.”
“How much?”
I reached into the pocket of my cardigan. The bills were folded into a small square. I had kept them there because I was scared someone would find them, and because I was scared nobody would.
I put the money on the marble.
Alessandro stared at it. He didn't touch that either.
“What did she put in it?” he asked.
“I don't know.”
“Emma.” He said my name carefully, like he was setting it somewhere safe. “Tell me what you know.”
I swallowed. My throat hurt even though I hadn't been crying.
“She called it medicine.”
The room seemed to grow smaller. Alessandro turned his head toward the doorway. It was empty. I checked it too. The woman had not been standing there when I looked last, but I could still feel the place where she had been.
“Did she tell you to bring it to me?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“What did she tell you to do?”
My fingers squeezed Rabbit until the stuffing moved under the cloth. “Watch.”
“Watch what?”
“Whether you ate it.”
His eyes went to the bread again.
He took one step around the table, then stopped before he came too close to me. I noticed that. He always stopped when people were close to him. Now he was doing it with me.
“Did she say my name?”
“No.”
“Did she say yours?”
“She said Emma.”
He looked toward the hall. “All right.”
I thought he would make me leave. Adults usually sent children away when their voices got low. They said things like, Go wait in the other room, or This isn't for you.
Instead, he pulled out a chair but didn't sit.
“You're going to stay here with me,” he said. “No one is going to make you eat anything. No one is going to make you explain more than you can.”
I looked at the bread. “Are you going to eat it?”
“No.”
“Even if she says you have to?”
His eyes came back to mine. “Especially then.”
That answer made my chest loosen a little. Not all the way.
He took his phone from his pocket. The black screen reflected part of his face. His thumb hovered over it, then stopped.
“Can I call someone?” he asked.
I didn't know who he meant. I looked at the empty doorway.
“Not her,” he said. “Someone who can help me keep this safe.”
I nodded, but my stomach twisted. Safe could mean a locked room. Safe could mean people asking questions. Safe could mean the woman finding out I had talked.
Alessandro seemed to see the answer on my face.
“You don't have to decide everything now,” he said. “Just the next thing.”
He moved the money closer to the plate without touching either one. Then he placed a clean glass upside down over the folded bills, as if they might blow away. He did the same with the bread, using a second glass from the sideboard.
The bread sat under the glass with its butter shining.
I watched him take a picture of the plate, the money, and the clock on the wall.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“So I remember exactly where everything was.”
“Will the woman know?”
“She might.”
That frightened me more than if he had said no.
Alessandro lowered his phone. “But knowing isn't the same as controlling what happens next.”
A sound came from the hall. A soft step. Then another.
I grabbed his sleeve before I could stop myself.
He looked down at my hand, then at my face.
“Don't send me away,” I whispered.
“I won't.”
The steps stopped outside the room.
May you like
Alessandro shifted so he stood between me and the doorway. He didn't touch me. He just made a straight line with his body, dark suit and black shirt, blocking the bright hall.
Then he said, “Show me where you were standing when she gave you the money.”
