Chapter 6 - No More Debts
Three months later, Vincent Marchetti was indicted on charges connected to the attack on the Contini estate, the attempted kidnapping, and a string of financial crimes Rafael’s attorneys had quietly documented for years.
For the first time since the shooting, the estate felt calm.
Wren stood in the sunroom again.
Her shoulder still ached on rainy mornings.
Her ribs had healed.
Her limp was gone.
Isabetta held out her hands.
“Well?”
Wren examined them.
“Flex.”
Isabetta flexed.
“Better.”
“Better than yours.”
“You’re eighty.”
“And still meaner.”
Wren smiled.
“You’re discharged from formal therapy.”
Isabetta looked offended.
“Absolutely not.”
“You don’t need me anymore.”
“Who said this was about need?”
Wren laughed.
Rafael appeared in the doorway.
“No fighting with my mother.”
“She started it.”
“I usually do,” Isabetta said.
Rafael walked toward Wren.
He had changed since the night she left.
Not softer exactly.
Rafael Contini would probably never be soft.
But he had learned to ask.
Instead of order.
Mostly.
“Dinner tonight,” he said.
“Where?”
“Downtown.”
“Business?”
“No.”
“Your mother?”
“No.”
Isabetta waved them away.
“Go. I need peace.”
Wren narrowed her eyes.
“You’re suspiciously cooperative.”
“I’m old. Leave.”
---
Rafael took Wren to a small restaurant on the river.
Not owned by him.
She had checked.
They ate in a quiet corner.
No guards at the table.
No expensive gifts.
No talk about debts.
After dessert, Rafael slid a folder across the table.
Wren stared.
“What is that?”
“Something I need you to read.”
“If this is another twelve-month lease you secretly paid—”
“It isn’t.”
She opened the folder.
Ridgeline Recovery Foundation.
Her eyes moved over the first page.
“What is this?”
“A nonprofit treatment fund.”
She kept reading.
“For families who can’t afford long-term rehabilitation?”
“Yes.”
She looked up.
“Rafael.”
“You told me once nobody should have to choose between rent and keeping someone they love in treatment.”
“You remembered that?”
“I remember everything you say.”
“That’s occasionally terrifying.”
“I know.”
She looked down again.
Her name appeared on the advisory board.
Wren Ashby.
“No.”
Rafael leaned back.
“No?”
“I’m not accepting another gift.”
“It isn’t yours.”
“Then why is my name here?”
“Because I want you to run the clinical grant committee.”
She stared at him.
“You’re offering me a job?”
“Yes.”
“Salary?”
“Competitive.”
“Benefits?”
“Excellent.”
“Can I fire you?”
“No.”
“Then benefits are mediocre.”
He smiled.
“This isn’t repayment.”
Wren studied him.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“No debt?”
“No debt.”
“No five bullets?”
“No five bullets.”
She closed the folder.
“Then I’ll think about it.”
Rafael nodded.
“Good.”
Wren blinked.
“That’s it?”
“What?”
“No command?”
“I’m improving.”
“You were about to tell me I had forty-eight hours, weren’t you?”
“Seventy-two.”
She laughed.
Then Rafael reached into his jacket.
Wren immediately pointed at him.
“No diamonds.”
He paused.
“What?”
“If that’s jewelry, put it back.”
Slowly, he placed a tiny velvet box on the table.
Wren groaned.
“Rafael.”
“Open it.”
“You promised no debt.”
“It’s not a debt.”
She opened the box.
Inside was not a diamond necklace.
It was a simple silver key.
Wren frowned.
“What does this open?”
“The house on Halsted.”
“What house?”
“One I bought.”
“Of course you bought a house.”
“It has three bedrooms.”
“Why?”
“One for us.”
Her eyes widened.
“One for Toby when he visits.”
“And the third?”
Rafael’s expression shifted.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether someday we need it.”
Wren went very still.
He continued before she could answer.
“No estate. No guards inside. No hospital wing. No room you didn’t choose.”
“Rafael…”
“I don’t want you living with me because I protected you.”
He took her hand.
“I want you living with me because you choose me.”
Her throat tightened.
“And if I say no?”
“I give you the key anyway and continue annoying you until you reconsider.”
She laughed through sudden tears.
“That sounds more like you.”
“Wren.”
“Yes?”
“Come home with me.”
This time, the word did not feel like a cage.
She closed her fingers around the key.
May you like
“Yes.”
---
