Chapter 13: Three Oaths

I walked in the front door at seven, in the green dress, with a wheelchair rolling behind me.

The old capo's nurse pushed it up the ramp.

The oxygen tank hissed on the footrest.

"Slower," the old man told her. "I want them to get a good look."

Valerio walked on my other side in a black suit.

The guard at the door stared at the chair, then at me.

"Livia Gallardi," he announced, and then he looked at the old man and lost his voice.

"He knows who I am, son," the old capo said. "Open the doors."

The long table had been stretched to fill the room.

Fifty people sat along it, every capo and every wife, and they all turned at once.

Nobody had seen the old man in two years.

My father stood at the head with a glass in his hand and his smile stuck on his face.

"Zio," he said. "You honor my house."

"I know I do," the old capo said. "Put me by the girl."

The nurse parked him at the middle of the table.

Valerio took the chair on my left.

On my right the dock capo sat down heavily, his wife beside him in a navy dress.

She looked at me, then at his plate, then at him.

He cleared his throat.

My mother sat at the far end in black, with her pearl earrings in and her eyes red.

She did not look at me.

Bianca was next to her, holding the heir's sleeve, and Elio sat across from them with his hands under the table.

He looked scared, and he kept looking at the ledger.

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