Chapter 2 - What Sal Would Not Carry
The next morning began at six-thirty out of habit.
Sal arrived at the garage exactly on time.
That should have made everything feel normal.
It did the opposite.
He was not wearing his driving coat.
He wore a brown cardigan over a white shirt and carried no thermos.
The black sedan sat where he had left it the night before.
I found him standing beside it with both hands in his pockets.
“You came back.”
He looked at me.
“I never said I quit.”
“You packed your locker.”
“I was told to.”
There was a difference, and I heard it this time.
I leaned against the workbench.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For walking you into the dining room without asking whether you wanted me to.”
Sal studied my face.
Then he looked down at the concrete floor.
“You were trying to help.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No.”
The word stung less because he did not soften it.
After a moment, he nodded toward the house.
“He’s been awake since five.”
“How do you know?”
“The study light was on when I pulled in.”
“You’re still watching the windows.”
“Thirty-four years. Hard habit to break.”
He opened the rear door of the sedan and reached beneath the seat.
When he straightened, he held a second red mitten.
I stared.
“I thought there was only one.”
“There was only one in my box.”
He turned this one over.
A small fabric label had been sewn into the cuff.
GABRIEL B.
“You found that Tuesday too?”
“Wednesday morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Sal looked at me.
“Because Vanessa asked me not to.”
“You believed she was going to tell him.”
“I believed she wanted one night to do it herself.”
“And then she tried to send you away.”
His mouth flattened.
“Yes.”
I thought about Vanessa calling him old in front of the guests.
I thought about Luca ordering him to stay.
Neither had asked what Sal wanted.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He looked surprised.
“With the job.”
He rubbed the second mitten between his fingers.
“I don’t know.”
That answer seemed to cost him something.
“I thought I would drive until Luca didn’t need me.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
Sal gave me a sideways look.
“You’re twenty-nine. You think every problem has a sentence attached to it.”
“Not every problem.”
“Most of yours.”
I smiled despite myself.
Then the garage door opened from the house.
Luca walked in wearing dark trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms.
He looked as if he had not slept.
His eyes went straight to Sal.
“You’re here.”
“So are you.”
Luca almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he saw the second mitten.
“What’s that?”
Sal handed it over.
“Found it under the rear seat.”
Luca read the label.
He closed his eyes for a second.
“Gabriel Bellini.”
“Probably.”
Luca looked toward me.
“Vanessa’s sister is coming at nine.”
I blinked.
“Her sister?”
“Marisa Bellini.”
Sal’s expression changed.
“That’s the woman from the house.”
“You saw her?”
“She opened the door.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“She called Vanessa at six this morning and told her she was coming here whether Vanessa liked it or not.”
I did not ask how Luca knew.
He answered anyway.
“Vanessa came to my study at six-ten.”
Sal looked at him.
“Did she explain?”
“She tried.”
“That bad?”
“That incomplete.”
Luca handed the mitten back to Sal.
Then he looked at me.
“Emma, I need coffee for four in the breakfast room at nine.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And then you’re done for the morning.”
My stomach tightened.
“Done?”
He saw my expression.
“Not fired.”
I exhaled before I could stop myself.
Luca’s mouth twitched.
“I want you out of this conversation unless someone asks you to be in it.”
I nodded.
“That seems fair.”
“It should have been obvious last night.”
There was no cruelty in it.
That made it worse.
“I know.”
Sal stepped between us emotionally without moving physically.
“She did one thing wrong.”
Luca looked at him.
“So did you.”
Sal’s eyebrows rose.
“I agreed to keep Vanessa’s secret because I thought I was protecting her chance to tell the truth herself.”
“Yes.”
“And you think that was wrong.”
“I think everybody in this house got very comfortable deciding what I could handle.”
Sal’s face changed.
Luca continued.
“And I think I trained them to.”
That stopped both of us.
He leaned against the sedan.
“For years, if something was unpleasant and not urgent, I told people to handle it.”
Sal said nothing.
“I let Vanessa take over household staffing because I did not want to discuss schedules, contracts, kitchen complaints, who was fighting with who, who needed a day off.”
“You have a business to run,” Sal said.
“That’s the excuse.”
“It’s also true.”
“Both can be true.”
The sentence sat between them.
Luca looked at Sal’s bare shoulders.
“Where’s your coat?”
“In my locker.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not driving today.”
Luca straightened.
“Sal—”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Taking a day.”
Luca stared at him.
In ten months, I had never seen anyone tell Luca Moretti they were simply taking a day without asking.
Sal’s chin lifted.
“I’m seventy-one, not furniture. I can decide I don’t want to carry people around for twenty-four hours after being told to disappear through a service entrance.”
Luca’s face went still.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Sal looked almost disappointed that there was no argument.
“Good.”
Luca glanced toward the house.
“Take the sedan if you need it.”
Sal shook his head.
“I have a Buick.”
“I know you have a Buick.”
“You always make fun of it.”
“It’s the color of oatmeal.”
“It’s dependable.”
“It’s oatmeal.”
Sal finally smiled.
For a moment, they looked less like employer and employee than two men who had spent too many years knowing each other to remain inside clean categories.
Then Luca’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed.
“Marisa’s early.”
I looked toward the house.
A car had just pulled into the circular drive.
Vanessa came through the foyer before anyone could move.
She was still wearing last night’s makeup under fresh powder.
She saw the car through the front windows.
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“You told me she was coming.”
“I didn’t know she was bringing him.”
Sal’s smile disappeared.
I followed Vanessa’s stare.
A woman in a gray coat stepped out of the car.
May you like
Then the rear passenger door opened.
A small boy climbed onto the wet driveway wearing one red mitten.
