My Father Sold Me at Eighteen, but the Mafia Lord Was the One in Debt to Me novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Reading
Graciela's POV
The reading hall held more people than it had been built for, and every one of them was looking at the man in my chair.
Ottavio Lindner sat on the lector's platform, in the high carved seat, with his gray suit pressed and his glasses on their cord.
He had a newspaper open on his knee.
He was reading aloud from the Tribune in a fine, easy, carrying voice, and nobody was listening to a word.
Two hundred and some people filled the benches and the galleries.
The rollers stood along the windows with their arms folded.
The Ricci cousins filled the front, and the Bay stood at the back.
Anselmo sat in the third row in his good navy suit.
I walked down the center aisle with Luca on my right and Nonna Concetta on my left, leaning on her cane.
The hall went quiet from the front to the back.
Ottavio folded the newspaper.
"Ah," he said, warmly.
"The family."
"Get out of my chair," I said.
It was not loud.
I said it in the voice I had been trained to use.
"Of course," said Ottavio.
He stood, with a small bow, and came down the platform steps.
He stopped at the bottom, and he did not leave.
He turned to the benches.
"Friends," he said.
"I asked you here for a reckoning, because the young Mrs. Ricci has made certain claims.
"I wish to hear them in front of everyone, and I wish to answer."
He stepped aside and gestured to the empty chair.
"Please," he said.
I climbed the steps.
My legs were steady.
I sat down in the lector's chair, and I felt the wood take my weight, worn smooth by a hundred years of other readers.
Luca stood at the foot of the platform with his hands at his sides.
Nonna lowered herself onto a bench in the front row.
I opened the folder on my knee.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Father Sold Me at Eighteen, but the Mafia Lord Was the One in Debt to Me are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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