Chapter 2 - THE MAN IN THE SUIT
Dominic laughed.
Not loudly.
Just enough to make it insulting.
“You giving me orders now, Rocco?”
Maeve looked between them.
She knew Dominic.
Everybody in Bellmere knew Dominic Vale.
But she had never understood why men like him lowered their voices around Rocco DeLuca.
Rocco owned DeLuca Construction.
At least, that was what the sign on his office said.
He had rebuilt the library after the fire.
He had paid for new uniforms when the high school football team ran out of money.
He had once fixed the bakery’s broken back door himself because Maeve’s mother couldn’t afford a contractor.
He was also a man people did not casually insult.
Rocco ignored Dominic.
He gently pulled Maeve’s flour-covered apron loose.
“You breathing okay?”
Maeve nodded.
“I’m fine.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I am.”
“You’re shaking.”
She looked down.
She was.
Rocco took off his suit jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
It smelled faintly of rain and coffee.
Dominic rolled his eyes.
“This is ridiculous.”
Rocco finally looked at him.
“What is?”
“Acting like I beat her.”
“You dumped a sack of flour on a kid and made her scrub your mess off the floor.”
“She’s sixteen.”
“That’s your defense?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I came here about business.”
“You came here to scare a woman who wasn’t here, so you humiliated her daughter instead.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
The customers stayed silent.
Rocco glanced at them.
“You all saw what happened?”
Nobody answered.
Dominic smiled again.
“You see? Nothing happened.”
The older woman near the counter suddenly spoke.
“I saw it.”
Everyone turned.
Her name was Mrs. Alvarez.
She had lived two streets away for almost thirty years.
Dominic stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
Mrs. Alvarez lifted her chin.
“You dumped the flour on that girl.”
Dominic took one step toward her.
Rocco stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Dominic stopped.
For the first time, his face changed.
Not fear.
Something closer to calculation.
He looked around the bakery.
Then he straightened his coat.
“All right.”
He reached into his wallet and dropped a hundred-dollar bill onto the counter.
“There. Paid for the flour.”
Maeve stared at it.
Rocco picked it up.
He folded it once.
Then twice.
Then he pushed it back into Dominic’s coat pocket.
“You don’t get to buy your way out of everything.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“You think you know what this is about?”
“I know exactly what I walked into.”
“No. You don’t.”
Dominic looked toward Maeve.
“Ask your mother why she hasn’t paid rent in four months.”
Maeve’s face changed.
Rocco noticed.
Dominic continued.
“Ask her why the bank won’t lend her another dollar.”
“Enough,” Rocco said.
“Oh, I’m just getting started.”
Dominic pointed toward the bakery walls.
“This place is done. Her mother knows it. I made her an offer, she refused, and now the clock ran out.”
Maeve whispered, “What offer?”
Dominic smiled at her.
“Tomorrow morning, I take possession.”
Maeve went pale.
Rocco stared at him.
“You’re lying.”
Dominic reached inside his coat and pulled out a folded document.
He placed it on the counter.
A court stamp sat at the top.
Maeve’s eyes moved across the first page.
Her stomach dropped.
NOTICE OF EVICTION.
Rocco grabbed the document.
“How did you get this?”
Dominic adjusted his collar.
“Legally.”
Then the bakery’s back door opened.
Maeve’s mother, Nora, walked in carrying two bags of sugar.
She saw the flour.
She saw Maeve covered in white.
Then she saw the paper in Rocco’s hand.
The bags slipped from her fingers.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
Maeve turned to her.
“Mom?”
Nora’s face collapsed.
Dominic smiled.
“Tell her.”
May you like
Maeve stared at her mother.
“Tell me what?”
