I snorted. “Better than selling him for cash every chance you got.”
She slammed her fist on the table, hard enough to rattle the forks. “Don’t you dare—”
But Levi cut her off. “You want me to sign the papers, I will. But after that, I’m done. You don’t call, you don’t visit, you don’t send letters or ask for money. You’re a stranger, Gloria. And that’s how it stays.”
She stared at him, the mask finally slipping, and for the first time I saw the fear under all the bluster. She was dying, sure, but not from cancer. She was dying from being utterly alone.
Knox cleared his throat, breaking the spell. “Sounds like a deal to me.”
Levi looked at me, searching my face for something. I nodded, and his whole body relaxed, shoulders dropping two inches at least.
Gloria stood, weaving a little, and grabbed her purse with both hands. She turned to me, eyes like razors. “You win, McKenzie. Hope you’re happy.”
“I am,” I said, letting her know exactly what I’d protect.
She left, slamming the door so hard it knocked a pie tin off the wall. The bakery exhaled as one, voices picking up, forks hitting plates, the world resuming.
Levi sagged against me, shaking all over.
“You did good,” I whispered, hand in his hair. “I’m proud of you.”
He let himself fold, forehead against my shoulder, and I let him.
I always would.
Knox poured him a fresh coffee. “On the house,” he said, sliding it over.
I held Levi’s hand, the one she’d tried to own, and ran my thumb over the fresh ink. The letters were clean and black, a brand nobody could take back.
“She’s not coming back,” I said, and I meant it.
He nodded, face still pressed to my shirt. “I know.”
But I kept watch on the street anyway, just in case the world decided to try again. I’d be ready.
The plan was to get Levi out of there, home and in bed, wrapped in blankets and anything else it took to keep the world off him. But as soon as we stood to leave, the bell over Rosie's door chimed again, and Gloria was back for a third time, wild-eyed and red-nosed, the rawness of her performance barely disguised.
She made a beeline for Levi, intercepting us halfway between table and exit. I tried to put myself between them, but she reached out, both hands clutching at his sleeve.
“Levi, don’t go,” she begged, her voice loud enough for the whole bakery to hear. “Please—please, I can’t do this alone. Don’t let me die like this. Not after everything I’ve been through to find you.”
He froze, head ducked, but she kept talking, desperate and high-pitched, turning her panic into a show for the gallery of onlookers. “Just one week, that’s all I’m asking. Just a little time before I—before—” She broke into sobs, face crumpling, but there was nothing behind the tears. Not for him, anyway.
It would have been easy to pity her, if you didn’t know her. But I saw the old grift in her eyes, the calculation that ran under every word.
“Let’s talk outside,” I said, keeping my hand at the small of Levi’s back. “Now.”
She let us herd her out, still weeping, past the tables of silent witnesses, all of them pretending to check their phones or stare into empty mugs. Outside, the cold air hit hard, cutting through the bakery warmth. Gloria shivered, and for a second, I saw the girl she must’ve been before she learned to weaponize her own fragility.
Knox was waiting by the truck, arms folded, face grim. He didn’t look at Levi or me—his attention was all for Gloria.
“Got something for you, ma’am,” he said, voice flat. “You’ve been busy since you left town.”
She straightened, snot wiped away with the back of her hand. “Excuse me?”
Knox pulled a folded sheet of paper from his breast pocket, the kind with a courthouse watermark that even I recognized from a distance. “You wanna tell us why there’s three benchwarrants for your arrest in two states? Fraud, theft, and a couple more for good measure.”
Levi’s breath caught. I felt the shock ripple through him, a physical thing.
