Mrs. Russo
Chapter 03 - Mrs. Russo
The first thing Sadi learned about becoming Mrs. Russo was that everyone said it as if the words might explode.
The nurses whispered it in the hall.
The security men used it carefully.
Even the surgeon, a silver-haired woman who had once removed shrapnel from a senator’s nephew, paused before saying, “Your husband is outside.”
“My husband is terrifying hospital administration,” Sadi said.
“He is paying for a private floor.”
“Same thing.”
The surgeon’s mouth twitched. “You are lucky, Mrs. Russo.”
Sadi looked down at the bandages wrapped beneath her gown.
“That’s one interpretation.”
On the eighth day, Dominic came in carrying a paper bag from a diner that was not Sal’s. He set it on the tray table.
“You are not eating hospital eggs again.”
“They have eggs here?”
“They claimed to.”
Inside the bag was toast cut diagonally, raspberry jam, and tea with lemon.
Sadi looked at the cup.
“Rosa?”
“She insisted. She said trauma should not ruin civilized habits.”
Sadi smiled before she could stop herself.
Then she noticed Dominic watching the smile as if it were evidence.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You looked like you solved a crime.”
“I have solved many crimes.”
“Were you the cause of some?”
He met her eyes. “Yes.”
The honesty landed between them like a heavy object.
Sadi lifted the tea. “At least you don’t advertise falsely.”
“I told you what marrying me meant.”
“No. You told me what it protected me from. Not what it placed me inside.”
Dominic sat in the chair beside her bed.
“Then ask.”
She should have asked about the Morettis. About safe houses. About whether she could ever go back to her apartment. Instead, she asked the question that had been bothering her since she woke.
“Why was your mother alone in my diner?”
Dominic looked away.
That was answer enough.
“You didn’t know she went there.”
“I knew she had habits. I did not know she went without security.”
“She did.”
“Yes.” His jaw tightened. “She has reminded me of that in detail.”
“Why Booth Four?”
His eyes returned to hers. “What do you mean?”
“She always sat there. Every Tuesday. Same time. Same tea.”
Dominic was very still.
Sadi lowered the cup.
“You really didn’t know.”
“No.”
The door opened before she could press further. A man with closely trimmed beard and alert eyes stepped in.
“Gabriel,” Dominic said.
Gabriel nodded to Sadi. “Mrs. Russo.”
“That still sounds illegal.”
“Most things in this family do at first.”
Dominic gave him a look.
Gabriel placed a tablet on the bed tray. “You asked for the diner footage.”
Sadi’s stomach tightened.
“I don’t want to watch myself get shot.”
“That part has been removed,” Gabriel said gently. “This is from before.”
Dominic did not reach for the tablet until Sadi nodded.
The image showed Sal’s Diner at 5:58. Rosa sat in Booth Four. Sadi moved between tables, tired and quick. Rain blurred the windows.
Then Sal emerged from the back, glanced toward Rosa, and slid something under her saucer.
A black envelope.
Sadi leaned closer.
“That was under the teacup.”
Dominic paused the footage. “You saw it?”
“Before I blacked out.”
Gabriel’s expression shifted.
Dominic looked at him. “Where is Sal?”
“Missing.”
Sadi turned her head too fast and pain bit her shoulder.
“Missing how?”
“He disappeared after the shooting,” Gabriel said. “His apartment was empty. His passport is gone. The register at the diner is clean. Too clean.”
Sadi stared at the frozen screen.
Sal had owned the diner for thirty years. He complained about taxes, watered-down ketchup, and young people who tipped with apps. He had once fired a cook for yelling at her.
“He wouldn’t help gunmen,” she said.
“I didn’t say he did,” Dominic replied.
“But you think he knows something.”
“I think my mother chose Booth Four for a reason. I think Sal passed her something. I think the men arrived three minutes later.”
The hospital room seemed to narrow.
Sadi looked at Rosa’s tea on the tray.
“What was in the envelope?”
“We don’t know. It wasn’t found.”
She looked at the footage again.
On the screen, Rosa’s hand rested near the saucer. She did not touch the envelope. She only looked at Sal with an expression Sadi recognized now.
Old fear.
The kind that recognizes a storm before the door opens.
Dominic’s phone vibrated.
He answered without greeting.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then his eyes moved to Sadi.
“Where?”
Whatever he heard changed his face.
He ended the call and stood.
“What happened?” Sadi asked.
Gabriel was already reaching for his jacket.
Dominic looked at her ring, then at her face.
“Someone broke into your apartment.”
“My apartment?”
“Yes.”
“What did they take?”
He hesitated, and that frightened her more than the answer.
“Nothing,” he said. “They left something.”
Sadi’s mouth went dry.
“What?”
May you like
Dominic slipped his phone into his pocket.
“A photograph of you as a child, sitting in Booth Four with my mother.”
