Chapter 2 - Stay Until He Sleeps
Clara expected Rico to fire her.
Instead, he asked one question.
“Can you stay until he falls asleep?”
The restaurant had reopened around them in whispers.
Leo sat in a corner booth with Clara beside him, one hand still locked around her finger.
Her manager looked like he wanted to disappear into the wall.
“My shift ends at ten.”
“It ends when she says it ends.”
“That’s not how jobs work.”
Dante coughed into his fist to hide a smile.
“No?”
“No.”
For the first time that night, he almost looked human.
“What would make you stay?”
“Ask me.”
Then:
“Clara, would you stay until Leo falls asleep?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised both of them.
An hour later, Leo was curled against Clara’s side in Rico’s private office above the restaurant.
Rico stood near the window.
“How did you do that?”
“I didn’t.”
“He hasn’t let anyone outside family hold his hand in months.”
“I didn’t make him.”
Rico looked toward his sleeping son.
“That distinction matters to you.”
“It should matter to everybody.”
Clara noticed a framed photograph on the desk.
A dark-haired woman with a bright smile.
The wife murdered six months earlier after a charity event in Queens.
The story had been everywhere.
“He doesn’t remember much from before.”
“He remembers warm milk.”
“Elena made it when he couldn’t sleep.”
“Then it isn’t the milk.”
“What is it?”
“Memory.”
Rico looked at her sharply.
“He’s reaching for something that still feels safe.”
Rico sat for the first time.
“I’ve bought every therapist they recommended.”
Clara’s expression changed.
“You can’t buy a therapist.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Maybe that’s part of the problem.”
Dante, standing by the door, suddenly became very interested in the ceiling.
“Everybody around him looks scared of making you angry.”
“I don’t hurt my son.”
“I didn’t say you do.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That he knows everyone is afraid.”
The boy shifted in his sleep.
His fingers tightened around Clara’s.
Rico whispered:
“What do you want?”
“For what?”
“To help him.”
“I want to pay rent.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Rico offered her a temporary position.
Just someone Leo had chosen.
“I don’t know anything about your family.”
“That may be an advantage.”
Then Leo murmured in his sleep.
“Bird.”
“What?”
“Bird man.”
All color left Rico’s face.
His hand moved instinctively toward his jacket.
Rico stared at his sleeping son.
Then said:
“Elena used to call one man in this family that.”
“Who?”
Rico did not answer.
May you like
He only looked at Dante and said:
“Lock the restaurant.”
