After He Watched Me Drown, I Built My Empire novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Old Man's Bed

The housekeeper let me in through the kitchen door and asked no questions.

She took my wet shoes, put a towel over my shoulders, and led me up the back stair to the old man's bedroom.

The doctor was coming out as I went in.

He gave me a long, warning look and walked away down the hall.

Don Brancato lay propped on three pillows with the lamp turned low.

He looked smaller in bed than he had at the head of the table.

"You went to the boathouse," he said. "And you looked at the file."

"Yes."

"I wondered how long it would take you."

"You told Remo to wait."

"I told him to film anything that went wrong." His breath rasped. "I did not tell him to count."

"It's the same."

"It isn't. But I won't argue with you tonight."

I stayed on my feet.

"You knew what Cesare was," I said. "Three weeks before the lake, you knew."

"I suspected."

"And you raised me in that cottage next to him."

"I raised you next to your father's chair," he said quietly. "I kept it empty because your father asked me to, and because the only people who could take it were the ones who would have used you to get it. I put you beside my son because I hoped he would be a different man than I feared."

"And he wasn't."

"No."

"And Fiora?"

"Fiora's father is the real danger. He has bought four of the six seats. He needs the fifth and sixth. He needs the Arcuri vote more than anything, and she came here to make sure you would never use it."

I thought of Fiora asking about my birthday.

I thought of the date she had marked.

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