All Chapters of Too Late To Love Me : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

"Surgery went well. He's asking for coffee. The nurses said no. He called them tyrants."Anne Beaumont said it into the phone with a laugh that was half a sob. Mira, standing in the hospital corridor on the twelfth of January, slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor with the phone against her ear."He's all right?""He's all right. Three new arteries. The surgeon says his heart is like an old oven. It just needed new pipes." Her mother blew her nose. "He wants to see you."Mira went in.Her father lay propped up on white pillows with a thick bandage on his chest under the hospital gown. He looked small in the bed. When he saw her, he smiled with his whole face."There she is," he rasped. "The general.""Papa.""Aldine called me." He reached for her hand. His grip was weak but warm. "She says you beat Vittorio to every bank in Brookhaven. She says you were sitting in the First National lobby at eight-fifteen with your grandmother's book and a box of almond croissants.""T

"Your Honor, this is cruel. You're asking a woman five months pregnant to be examined like a criminal."Celine's lawyer said it standing up, with one hand on the table and the other pressed to his heart. He was a smooth man with silver hair and a voice like warm syrup. His name was Lionel Grant, and Kate Marsh had told Dante he cost a thousand dollars an hour.Judge Patricia Moss didn't even look up from her papers."Mr. Grant. Your client is a woman charged with fraud, theft and conspiracy. She asked this court for special treatment because of her pregnancy. I'm giving her the chance to prove it." She turned a page. "If she's five months pregnant, a ten-minute scan will prove it, and I'll lower her bail this afternoon. If she isn't, she should have thought of that before she asked."Dante sat in the third row of the small courtroom with Theo beside him. It was Monday morning. The room smelled of floor polish and old radiators. Kate Marsh sat two seats down with her notebook on her kn

"Tell me."Dante said it in a bare interview room at Brookhaven Central at noon. Detective Okafor stood by the door. She had agreed to five minutes, because Celine wouldn't say a word to anyone else.Celine sat across the table from him in a gray police sweatshirt. Her cream dress was in an evidence bag now, along with the cushion. Her hands lay flat on the table. Her face was scrubbed clean of makeup.Without it, she looked younger. And even more like Mira."The first time I saw you," she said, "you were standing at my front desk in Lakeport with your suitcase and your laptop bag and your expensive watch. You were twenty-five. You asked for a room with a desk by the window. You were polite. You didn't look at me."Dante waited."One night that spring, you came down at two in the morning because the printer in your room was broken. I fixed it for you. You took out your wallet to give me a tip." Celine's eyes went to his chest, to the inside pocket of his jacket. "And a photograph fell

"I came to tell you the semifinal list went up."Julien said it carefully, looking at her wet face. He held out one of the cups. She didn't take it."Who's upstairs?" he asked."Dante."Julien looked up at the fourth-floor window. Then back at her."Walk with me," he said.They walked to the canal. A single duck sat on the ice at the edge, looking offended.Mira didn't talk. Julien didn't make her.On a bench by the lock, she finally sat down. He sat beside her and handed her the coffee again. This time she took it. Black. No sugar. He had learned too."There was never a baby," she said. "Celine wore a cushion from a theater shop for five months."Julien let out a breath through his nose. "I'm sorry.""I'm not. I'm glad." She held the hot cup against her cold cheek. "That's not what's wrong.""Then what's wrong?""He loved me." Mira laughed. It came out jagged. "He carried my picture in his wallet for three years. He was in love with me the whole time. He told me so this morning in my

"You look like you saw a ghost."Adèle said it at seven the next morning, dropping her bag at station seven. Mira was already at the marble with a cup of coffee she hadn't touched."I heard one," Mira said."What?"Mira shook her head. She couldn't explain it. She didn't want to try."Is it about Castel?" Adèle leaned in. "Or the husband? Or the husband's friend, who texts me pictures of terrible croissants at three in the morning?"Mira looked up. "Theo texts you?""Since the gala. He stole a tart off my plate at the bar and I told him he owed me a real one." Adèle went pink. "Never mind. Drink your coffee."She had sent it at eleven-twelve. At eleven-thirteen, Julien had answered with one word. [Fine.]She had asked a man who loved her to wait while she made up her mind about someone else. Exactly what Dante had asked of her."Mira." Adèle snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Earth to Mira. Castel's coming. Look busy."Julien came in at seven-fifteen. He didn't look at her. He