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“I have something I want to show you,” I said as I pushed open my bedroom door.
Everything was as I’d left it when I finally decided to go downstairs and find out who was banging on my door. I hadn’t recognized Dante’s frantic voice until I’d gone downstairs.
Dante followed me into my room, stopping respectfully just inside the doorway.
He looked at the papers scattered on the bed. “What happened when you came home, Noemi?”
I pulled my overnight bag out of the closet and tried to stay busy as I explained it to him. I had to. If I just stood there, if I looked at those pages one more time, I was going to lose it again.
“I was cold and honestly,” I said as I set the bag on the bed and turned to face him as he leaned against the doorjamb, looking every bit like he belonged there, “I was still angry with you. I came upstairs to take a bath.”
Dante ignored the papers strewn about the bed and let me tell my story. He glanced into the open door of the bathroom where the tub was still half full of water, but he didn’t say anything.
I walked to my dresser and opened a few drawers to get some pajamas, a t-shirt and sweater, a pair of jeans and some underwear. I returned to the bed and started to fill the bag.
“I found that envelope with my name on it in the middle of the bed. I wasn’t scared at first, not until I read it, and now, I realize that was entirely the right reaction to have.”
That confession made Dante’s eyebrows raise. “Someone had been in your home.Uninvited.”
“I know,” I sighed. “And I guess that makes me an idiot. I mean, for a second I got nervous, but then I saw the envelope and I thought... you know, the romantic in me thought...”
“That it was from me,” Dante finished for me while my cheeks lit up with embarrassment.
“Yes.”
“So, you decided to open it? Can I see what you found inside?”
I wasn’t touching those damn papers again. I waved my hand toward the bed. “Sure. I’ll just go get my toiletries.”
I let Dante peruse the contents of the envelope while I gathered what I needed. I took my time, not in any hurry to discuss the note that implied that Dante was the person responsible for my parents’ death.
When I was finally brave enough to come out of the bathroom, Dante looked up from the pages in his hand with a furious frown on his face, his demeanor lightening as he studied me.
He shoved the papers back into the manila envelope. “Do you have everything you need?”
I could only nod, preparing to get scolded for not using words and not caring one damn bit if I were.
But Dante didn’t say anything either. He took my toiletry case from me, added it to the top of the bag, zipped the bag, tucked the envelope under his elbow and put his arm around me.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
I followed my usual locking up procedures while Dante waited in the kitchen doorway. We stepped outside the door. While Dane waited on the stoop, I started to lock the door then paused, staring at my key then at the pristine lock.
“What is it?” Dante asked.
I turned to look at him. “The door was locked when you came over.”
“Yes. If it weren’t, I’m not ashamed to say, I would have barged in. Why?”
“How did they get in?” I asked more to the universe than specifically to Dante. “There’s no sign of a forced entry. The door wasn’t locked when I got home, but I am ninety-nine percent certain that I locked it when I left. I always do. But if they didn’t break in... did they have a key?”
Dante listened to me patiently. “You don’t have an alarm system, do you?”
“No. Although, in this day and age, we should have, I suppose. Especially with the house being empty for so long. I think Willis just never got around to setting it up.”
The Dante I was more familiar with returned. “I’ll take care of that as soon as we return,” he said as I locked the door.
“It’s okay. I’ll get Willis—”
