“Talk to me,civetta. Where does it hurt?”
She picked glass from Lou’s clothes and hair. “Y-you…” she stammered, her voice frail, “Y-you called me your wife.”
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
Shaky exhales left her as she continued her task. “And Lou, your sister-in-law?”
“Where are you hurting?”
“Is it true?”
“Stop focusing on that.” I wanted to shake her.
“I can’t,” she whispered brokenly. She wiped a small cut clean from Lou’s head with her shirt.
“Yes, alright? Yes, it’s true. All of it.”
She nodded slowly, her fingers trailing down Lou’s cornrow braids.
“You forged my signature on the certificate?” It was asked so softly, I almost didn’t hear it.
“Yes,” I said, almost hoping it would make her angry and break her out of this funk.
“Oh.”
The operator came back on the line before I could demand more of a reaction. An ambulance and a medical helicopter were dispatched and on their way.
“You hear that, baby? They’re almost here. She’s going to be okay.”
“Okay.” She sniffled through her tears.
I muted the line again.
“Civetta, we need to know. Where’s Massimo?”
She didn’t look away from Lou, her eyes gaunt and tired. “He’s dead.”
“Good, that’s good.”
Her hand lifted, a pair of keys on her index finger, and she pointed back toward the road. “There’s a side road. Not far. He’s there with Alfie. And their car.”
“We’ll take care of it.” I twisted around. “Vinny?”
“I heard. We’ll get on it.” Footsteps crunched through the woods, running back up to the road. Car doors slammed, and engines grumbled. Metal whined and rattled, and then the cars hummed and groaned as they pulled away.
“I’m not leaving you,” I told Ainsley.
“I know,” she whispered.
I pulled her into a hug, and her head rested on my shoulder. All the while, she continued removing debris from Lou’s hair. Glass bits poked my collarbone, so I too gently pried piece after piece out of Ainsley’s hair.
“She’s not waking up. Why isn’t she waking up?” Ainsley smeared tears off her face with the back of her bloodied hand.
“She will.”
“Promise?”
It was the first time she looked at me since I found her here, and I’d never seen her so broken. Not even that day seven years ago in the Hayes house.
