Free Sleeping With The Enemy by M.N Providence Page B

stopped before him and gazed into his eyes lovingly.
‘The rules have changed…It’s no longer bout me…’ Her voice trailed off but
returned moments later. ‘It’s about you, isn’t it?’ she asked gently. ‘It’s you
that Cambiaso wants.’
    ‘I’m afraid so,’
Imposimato responded quietly.
    They stared at each
other silently for a long moment.
    Rosina eventually
broke the silence. ‘Goodbye, Ferdinand,’ she said in a quavering voice, tears
wetting her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek.
    He tried to hold
her but she shook her head and pulled away from him and walked to the door. She
gave him one last glance and walked out of his life.

Sixteen
     
    She was sitting
on a chair under a tree, with an open book on her lap. In front of her were
twenty seven children, who also each had a copy of the book that was on her lap.
One of them, a small girl of nine, was standing up and reading aloud to the class.
The girl mispronounced the word “familiarity” and Rosina took a moment to
correct her.
    Suddenly the
whole class burst into noisy cheering, shouting hysterically and clapping their
hands in unison, “Mr. Imposimato! Mr. Imposimato! Mr—.’
    Rosina rebuked
them harshly, having glanced over her shoulder and seen the man himself, standing
there, clad in a long black coat, holding a bunch of beautiful red roses in his
hands.
    The children quieted
down.
    She stood up to
face him, color rising on her face.
    He handed her
the flowers. ‘These are for you.’ He turned to point his hand at the convoy of
cars parked a distance away on the driveway. ‘And in those vans are boxes full
of gifts for the kids.’
    She glared at
him angrily, whispered something to the sub-teacher, and then she stomped down
the park to a tree a bit further away from the children. She faced him with a
flushed face. ‘What are you doing here?’ she fumed.
    ‘Take the
flowers,’ he said calmly.
    She folded her hands
across her chest.’ I do not want your flowers. I want to know what you want
here.’
    His hands fell
to his sides. ‘I brought some presents for the kids, that’s all.’
    ‘We do not need
your charity, Ferdinand. This center shall not be associated with blood
tokens.’
    He grimaced painfully.
‘You know as well as I do that these children need—.’
    ‘Not if they
were obtained with blood money.’
    He sighed heavily.
‘It’s pointless to stand here and argue about where the money came from. What
matters is that these children get these goods so that they can at least lessen
their suffering—.’
    She cut him
short. ‘What do you know about suffering, huh? You come here clad in your fancy
clothes, driven in an expensive car, and you stand there and talk about
suffering. What can you possibly know about suffering?’ She was yelling now.
    ‘A lot!’ he
yelled back angrily, and then stopped when he realized that the children, a distance
away, were startled. ‘A lot,’ he repeated in a lower voice.
    They stared at each
other angrily for a long moment, and then he sighed deeply and looked away from
her face. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
    ‘Tell me why,’
she said in a quiet voice.
    He brought his
gaze back to her and stared at her with a puzzled face. ‘Why?’
    ‘Yes. Why choose
this…this life .’
    He stared at her
as she leaned against the tree trunk, her hands folded firmly cross her chest.
‘I never knew my dad,’ he said with a sigh. Ma got pregnant with me when she
was very young. And the man responsible vanished. Ma had a small income from
her job. We didn’t have enough to get by. I was an angry and hungry kid. Got
involved with a bad crowd. I had this hungry desire to succeed…’ He looked away
from her penetrating gaze. ‘Ultimately the end justifies the means.’
    She stared
sympathetically at him. ‘But you had a choice—.’
    ‘I had no
choice!’ He hurled away the bunch of roses with such vehemence she flinched
back into the tree.
    ‘I had