Stepmother Beats Poor Waitress For Feeding Stray Dog — The Mafia Boss Saw Her Scars & Takes Action

Chapter 14

Two weeks later, Cassian returned to the Copper Kettle for the last time.

It was late afternoon, before the night shift, and the diner was nearly empty. Odette was wiping down the counter when he walked in.

She looked up, and something in her face softened.

“She doesn’t work here anymore,” Odette said before he could ask.

Cassian nodded. He’d expected that.

“She came by last week to return her uniform,” Odette continued. “Washed and folded, same as always. She thanked me. I told her she didn’t need to thank me for anything.”

Odette set down the cloth and looked at him.

“She’s got her girl back. That’s all that matters.”

Cassian asked if she knew where Elodie had gone.

Odette shook her head. “She didn’t say. But Tobias might know.”

She nodded toward the kitchen, where Tobias was washing vegetables at the steel sink.

Cassian walked back and stood in the doorway. Tobias looked up, his hands still dripping water, and for a moment he looked like he was deciding whether to say anything at all.

Then he said, “She moved. Oak Park. Near where her daughter was staying. She got a job at a bakery two blocks from the school.”

He wiped his hands on a towel.

“She said she wanted to be close. In case Renley ever needed her.”

Cassian nodded.

Tobias hesitated, then added, “She asked about you.”

Cassian looked at him.

“She asked if you still came by. I told her you did, sometimes. She said…” He trailed off, then started again. “She said to tell you thank you. And that she hopes you find your dog.”

Cassian stood there for a long moment. Then he turned and walked out of the kitchen without saying anything.

Odette was waiting at the counter. She poured him a cup of coffee without asking and set it down in front of him.

“You know,” she said quietly, “I’ve been running this place for forty years. I’ve seen a lot of people come through that door. Some of them leave, and you forget them the next day. Some of them leave, and you remember them the rest of your life.”

She looked toward the window.

“She was one of the ones you remember.”

Cassian drank his coffee in silence. When he finished, he placed two hundred-dollar bills on the counter.

Odette looked at the money, then at him.

“That’s too much,” she said.

“It’s for Tobias,” Cassian said. “Tell him to buy better shoes. And tell him the city finally fixed those streetlights.”

Odette smiled, just barely. “I’ll tell him.”

Cassian stood and walked toward the door. He was halfway across the parking lot when he heard Odette call after him.

“Mr. Ror.”

He turned.

She was standing in the doorway, backlit by the diner’s warm glow.

“I hope you find your dog too,” she said.

Cassian nodded once, then got into his car.