Sing for the Wolf

Violetta Ricci sings jazz in a basement club off Via San Vitale three nights a week. For two years the same man has stood at the back of the room, against the brick, and left before she reaches her coat. She has never seen his face. She has started to look for him. Then her brother is arrested on a charge that will take six years from him, and Violetta learns that the charge was manufactured by the man from the back of the room. Alessio Moretti. Billionaire, hotelier, head of the Moretti family, and the owner of the building she lives in — and has been, since before she moved in. His terms are simple. She will sing for him. Privately. Four nights a week, in the ballroom of his empty hotel, until his daughter's wedding. Ninety nights, in a room the size of a swimming pool, with a man who never sits down. By the ninety-first, she will know why he has been listening for two years. And she will not care that the answer is not romantic. She will care that it is true.