Memories Without Him novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Five Families

The table on the top floor of Arcuri Tower seated five, and by noon on Wednesday it was full.

Four Dons sat along the long walnut sides.

Francesca's father was one of them, and he would not look at me.

Vincent sat at the head, and Aldo took his usual chair at Vincent's right hand, with a paper cup of coffee and an easy smile.

No one had told him what the meeting was for.

I stood behind Vincent's chair in a black dress, and every man at the table knew who I was, and none of them knew why I was there.

"You called us," said the eldest of the Dons, a man with white eyebrows. "Say it."

"Not me," Vincent said. "My wife has something to tell you."

"Ex-wife," said Francesca's father. "I heard the paper was signed."

"The paper's in my desk," Vincent said. "Unfiled."

Aldo's cup stopped halfway to his mouth.

I put both hands on the back of the chair.

"Seven years ago my parents were shot in a car meant for Vincent's family," I said. "I was in the back seat. My father lived long enough to speak. I forgot what he said, and I have remembered it now."

Nobody moved.

"He said, Don't ever trust the man who kneels beside you and says he'll take care of it."

I turned my head.

"And Aldo knelt beside him, and said it."

Then Aldo laughed, a warm, rich, sorry laugh, and set his cup down.

"Gemma, sweetheart. You've had brain surgery. You can't tell a dream from the street."

"That's what you told the lawyer," I said.

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