Page 139 of Ruthless Sin
When I’m done, she takes the mug. The plate.
“You go upstairs now. You don’t gotta sleep. You don’t gotta do anythin’ but be in your room and breathe. You hear me?”
“Yes,” I say.
The first thing I’ve said out loud since I left his room.
“Bon.”
She lets go of my hand.
“And,chère.”
I look at her.
“Niccolò. He been mine since he was a baby with his mama in this kitchen. He’s a fool, and he gotta pay for what he did. But don’t decide who he is to you tonight. Decide later. After you eat. After you sleep. You hear me?”
I don’t answer.
“You hear me, Mila.”
It’s the first time she’s said my name withoutcherorma chèreattached.
“I hear you,” I say.
She nods.
I walk out.
Giada is in the hallway outside the kitchen.
She’s in scrubs. Tablet under one arm. Hair tied back.
She steps in front of me before I reach the back hallway.
“Mila. A minute.”
I don’t have it in me to refuse her.
She looks at me. Doctor first. She reads my face like a chart. The eyes. The skin. The pulse at my throat. How I’m standing.
“You’re dehydrated. Your pulse is fast. You’ve lost weight. Your body’s been feeding on itself for days because you haven’t given it food.”
She doesn’t make me sit. She just blocks my path enough that I have to listen.
“I’m talking to you like a doctor right now. If you don’t eat soon, you’re going to faint. You’re going to fall on something. You’re going to hit your head. Your potassium is on the edge. You could go into arrhythmia. You’re young, so you recover. But I’m telling you, Mila, you’re closer to a hospital bed than you think.”
She stops.
“I just heard you eat in there. Nonna told me. Don’t make tonight a one-time thing. Eat tomorrow. Eat the day after. That’s what I’m asking.”
I don’t answer.
“That’s the doctor part.”
She breathes out.
“This is the sister part. Not the doctor.”
