LOGINShare
CHAPTER 87 — DECEMBER
publish date:
2026-05-19 03:20:02
Latest chapter
burn between us CHAPTER 89 — THE NEW YEAR
They drove back to the Alentejo on the thirtieth of December, arriving as the year was preparing to close — the last two days of it, the coastal path in the winter afternoon light, the house receiving them with the warmth of a place that had been left well and returned to correctly.New Year's Eve was quiet.They had dinner — something Dante made, something elaborate enough for an occasion and simple enough for an evening they wanted to spend being in the house rather than in the preparation of a meal. The Alentejo wine. The last of the fig jam on the bread, because Elian had determined that fig jam on good bread with the right wine was one of the specific pleasures that should be deployed for occasions.At midnight they were on the veranda.The Atlantic was doing its winter self — dark and serious and entirely present, the sound of it carrying to the veranda clearly in the still night. Stars, because the Alentejo was dark enough for stars. The same stars as every other clear night bu
burn between us CHAPTER 88 — CHRISTMAS IN CARDIFF
They drove to Cardiff.Not flew — drove, because Elian wanted to see the landscape in December and because their car had enough room for the things they were bringing: the bottle of olive oil, two bottles of Alentejo wine, a fig jam that Elian had made from the exceptional figs in October using Marta's recipe, which had required the patience Marta had promised and which had, Elian reported with the satisfaction of someone who had applied patience correctly and been rewarded, turned out extraordinary.The drive took two days — one night in a hotel in northern Spain, the kind Elian chose on principle, small and local and connected to the food and atmosphere of its specific place. Dante had stopped arguing about hotel choices. Elian was always right about hotels."The novel is at sixty thousand words," Elian said, somewhere in the Basque Country."How many to go?" Dante said."Another thirty, maybe forty," Elian said. "The third act is longer than I expected. The staying is more — there'
burn between us CHAPTER 87 — DECEMBER
December arrived with the specific announcement of the Alentejo winter — a sharpening of the air, the Atlantic acquiring its cold-weather seriousness, the mornings requiring the jacket that hadn't been needed in November.Dante loved it.He had said this to Elian at the beginning of the previous winter and it remained true — the winter version of the coast had a quality of clarity that the other seasons, beautiful as they were, didn't have. Everything unnecessary fell away. What was left was structural.The olive oil had been pressed in November — the property's first pressing, from the trees at the orchard's edge that had been there for decades and produced with the accumulated authority of deep-rooted things. Three bottles from their own trees. Dante had set one aside for Elian's mother in Cardiff. One for the kitchen. One for Marta, because Marta had sent wine and gardening guides and hand-drawn maps and it was correct to give something back in a form that said: we are growing here
burn between us CHAPTER 86 — NOVEMBER LETTERS
The correspondence had been growing since the novel published.Not for Elian — that was separate, the journalist's mail, the reader responses to the novel, which came through the publisher and which Elian dealt with on Wednesday mornings with the focused efficiency he brought to anything that was important enough to deserve proper attention and specific enough to have a defined process.For the foundation.Letters, emails, calls through the contact. People who had read the novel's acknowledgment. People who had heard about the foundation through the trial coverage. People who had been sent the contact by someone who knew someone who had been through the program. The intake funnel was broader than it had been six months ago and was growing steadily.Dante managed the initial contact personally — every first response was his, because the first contact was the most important and required the specific quality of someone who had been where the person writing was. He wrote them at the kitch
burn between us CHAPTER 85 — WHAT IT COSTS
The question of cost came from Petra, indirectly, on a Tuesday in November.She was leaving for Munich in February — the application had been accepted, the February intake confirmed, the preparatory coursework completed with the commendation that had prompted the instructor's unusually mature assessment. She was three months from leaving the Alentejo house.She was in the garden — the herb bed, which she'd made her particular domain and which was in its autumn state, the rosemary still producing, the thyme having proved itself the survivor Dante had said it was."I want to ask you something," she said. "And I want you to be honest rather than encouraging.""I'm always honest," Dante said."You're honest and kind simultaneously," she said. "I want just the honest part.""All right," Dante said."The foundation," she said. "The intake work. What does it cost you? Not the time or the logistics. What does it cost — " She paused, finding the right word. "Personally."Dante pulled something
burn between us CHAPTER 84 — THE CALL WITH SELENE
She answered on the first ring, which told Dante she'd already seen the copy Vandermeersch's office had sent her."You read it," he said."I received it forty minutes before you did," she said. "I've been waiting for your call." A pause. "Your response?""We should do it," Dante said."Yes," Selene said. "We should." She paused. "Marta?""Elian thinks she should present the methodology," Dante said."Elian is correct," Selene said. "Marta built it. Her presenting it is accurate and appropriate and will be more persuasive to that working group than anyone else presenting it on her behalf.""She'll resist," Dante said."I'll talk to her," Selene said, which closed the question of Marta's resistance with the completeness of someone who had been managing Marta's particular form of principled reluctance for longer than Dante had known either of them."The outcomes documentation," Dante said. "Elian has been maintaining quarterly reports and individual summaries.""I know," Selene said. "I'
You may also like
Mafia Men IV - Vincenzo's Temptation
Janedoewritings165.6K viewsYou Can Run But...
AmonAvHs249.0K viewsBeautiful Disaster
Val Sims103.4K viewsHis Sinful Possession
Taevya173.0K viewsHis Arranged Protection
NABIIE172 viewsThe Don's Diabolic Desire
Taevya1.0K viewsOwned By The Don: Dark Mafia Romance
Yayi Mother232 viewsBLOODBOUND: HEIRESS OF THE MAFIA
Beauty m.j278 views
