All Chapters of Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Violet murmured an apology and slipped back into his arms. The tension in Matteo’s jaw eased. She said something I couldn’t hear, and he bent his head with a smile.I stopped watching and eased the door back to the angle at which I’d found it.It was our fifth wedding anniversary. I’d finished early at my restoration studio and brought his gift home to our Beacon Hill brownstone. The guard at the gate assumed I’d come back during the workday to surprise my husband. That had been the plan, until I heard a second voice in our dressing room.I knew the girl. Violet Reed, twenty-four, an events assistant at the Moretti Foundation, was preparing for her final performance at the conservatory. We’d first met two months earlier, when I’d taken paperwork to Matteo’s harbor offices and walked in on him throwing a guest list onto his desk.Violet had seated representatives of two rival families beside each other at the same dinner.“This isn’t a campus fundraiser.” Matteo tapped the list. “You pu

While Matteo was in the shower, his private phone rang beside his radio. Luca’s name filled the screen.Matteo hadn’t always wanted to spend time with him. Once, when Luca had brought in a few escorts after a family gathering, Matteo had walked out and told his driver to take him home. Lately, though, Luca seemed to call every night. Trouble at the casino, a problem with a shipment at the docks. I’d never asked for details. I only reminded Matteo to take his guards.This time, I answered.“Matteo, where are you? You should be here by now.”It was Violet.I stood still, the room abruptly quiet around me. Every late night I’d accepted as part of his responsibilities took on another meaning.If he made it home before I left for work, he’d toast sourdough, slice fruit, and sit with me while I ate. I’d tell him to get some sleep instead.“I’ve got time for breakfast with my wife.” He always made it sound so easy.He hadn’t stopped being good to me. He’d fitted the lying around it.Violet ca

“Lena?” Matteo took two steps toward the walkway.Several guests carrying programs crossed in front of him. When they cleared his view, the column was empty. A staff member was hurrying toward a side door.It couldn’t have been her. Elena was supposed to be in Boston, at home. She didn’t even know he was at the conservatory.He pulled out his phone and called. She didn’t answer.The ringing took him back to their honeymoon. The restaurant windows had shattered around them, and Elena had pushed him into cover without quite reaching it herself. He’d spent seven hours outside the operating room. That night, he’d learned there were things he couldn’t protect by adding guards or handing out more guns.When she woke, he’d promised never to put her in danger again.The call ended. He tried a second time, but Violet caught his wrist. “It’s about to start. You promised you’d be here for me today.”She looked hurt for a moment, then smiled and leaned close to whisper something meant only for him

Violet sat with several classmates in the waterfront restaurant, her convertible’s keys lying where everyone could see them. She was enjoying the attention.“We’ll move to Newport when the baby comes,” she told them. “He owns an estate right on the water. If you want a vacation, just call me. You won’t need to book a hotel.”“But he’s married.” One of the women lowered her voice. “And Mrs. Moretti’s father isn’t exactly someone you want to mess with, is he?”Violet laughed. “What’s she going to do? I’ve told her plenty, and she hasn’t dared answer a single message. You can see who he wants to spend time with.”The door opened. The manager stepped aside, and two men followed Matteo in before taking up positions by the exit.Violet barely had time to rise. Matteo caught her wrist and dragged her out of her chair, then threw Elena’s phone onto the table. The video of the pocket watch was open on the screen.“Who told you to contact my wife?”“Matteo, I only—”“What did I tell you?”She’d

It took Matteo two weeks to find a way to reach me. During those weeks, I rented a south-facing apartment in Edinburgh and found work restoring old books. Each morning, the woman at the corner bakery asked whether she should set something aside for me the next day.For the first time, I could make plans without wondering when somebody else would come home. Tomorrow belonged to me, and the small arrangements I made for it no longer needed to fit around Matteo’s return.This was the world my mother had been born in. Years earlier, she’d traveled with the System to Boston and met a young Vincent Walsh. He hadn’t owned his docks then, and his name hadn’t made people step aside. He’d only had a failing freight business.My mother had stayed through the hardest years. When her assignment from the System ended, she chose to remain in that world. Eventually, she had me. She never trusted my father’s promises in business, but she believed the ones he made at home.The first time she discovered