Chapter 2 - The Door Rosa Chose
The kitchen smelled of coffee and warm bread. Usually those smells settled Lily. That morning she clung to Rosa's neck, duck socks dangling against her mother's apron.
"Mama, bad lady mad?"
"She was unkind, baby. You didn't do anything bad."
"Button mine?"
"You can keep it until we find out who lost it. But it stays in my pocket so you don't put it in your mouth."
Lily considered this, then handed it over. Rosa tucked the button into the apron she intended never to wear again.
Mr. Bruno entered with a folded paper bag. "Breakfast for the journey."
"I haven't said I'm leaving."
"You won't stay after that. I know you."
Rosa pressed her lips together. Four years of cleaning rooms and earning wages that kept them afloat. Bruno had even let her bring Lily when childcare fell through. Those things had saved them.
"He'll be angry," Bruno said.
"He's allowed to be."
Alessandro appeared at the doorway. His gaze went first to Lily, now asleep against Rosa's shoulder.
"We need to talk."
"She's tired."
"Later, then."
"Even your 'later' sounds like an order," Rosa said.
He stepped aside from the doorway. "What do you need?"
"My final pay, a reference that tells the truth, and no one following me home."
"I'm not dismissing you."
"I'm resigning. Those are different things."
He rubbed the back of his neck, as if no one had taught him what to do when a person refused a generous offer. "I can arrange another position. Better hours."
"I don't want you arranging my life."
"I could protect you."
"From whom, Alessandro?" Her voice cracked. "Your fiancée? Her father? Yours? You built a world I have to be protected from."
He looked down. That hurt him more than shouting would have.
Rosa slipped off her apron and moved the button into her purse. Then she tucked Bun the stuffed rabbit into Lily's canvas bag. Teresa, the senior housekeeper, arrived carrying Rosa's coat.
"I'll cover your shift," Teresa said. "You just go."
"They'll make you pay for helping."
"I'm sixty-two. If they want to argue with me about kindness, I have the entire afternoon."
At the service exit Alessandro waited, having reached it by the other corridor. Rosa stopped short.
"You're blocking the door."
He moved immediately. "I wanted to say I'm sorry. Not for being surprised. For being absent enough that you had to answer those questions alone."
Rosa searched his face. "An apology isn't a plan."
"No," he said. "But I mean to make one. Will you let my attorney contact you?"
"You can ask. I can refuse."
Lily stirred. "Mama. Home?"
"Yes, sweetheart. Home."
Rosa walked out through the kitchen door with a paper bag, a rabbit, and her daughter. Through the glass she saw Alessandro reach for his phone.
May you like
He wasn't calling security.
He was calling his father.
