He Left His Pregnant Bride at the Altar novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Long Table
We reached my father's street at half past nine, and the sidewalk was lined with black cars.
I had Rosa against my chest in her wrap, and Ruggero on my left, and Tiberio on my right.
None of us had slept.
The two men on the stoop saw us coming and didn't step aside this time.
"Let them in," said a voice from inside, and the door opened.
The dining room had a table that sat thirty.
It was full.
Captains from both families lined the long sides, in their good suits, with their hands on the cloth.
My father sat at the foot, in his own chair, calm as a bishop.
And at the head of the table, in the pale blue dress she had worn as my bridesmaid, stood Nerina.
She hadn't heard us come in.
Her hands were flat on the back of the chair, and her voice was low and perfectly clear.
"...so I asked him which was the road, and he told me. He said it was the road outside Poughkeepsie, and it was raining."
The room was dead still.
Not a fork moved.
"He told me the name of the man who drove, and the name of the man who gave the order. And then he told me the name of the man who said yes."
Her eyes went to the far end of the table.
"That was you, Papa."
My father smiled.
It was a sad, tolerant smile, the one he gave to waiters who dropped a glass.
"My daughter is not well," he said to the room.
"I'm not your daughter," said Nerina. "My father was an accountant. I found the cemetery record when I was nineteen, and you never once told me where they were buried."
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