My Father's Test Turns Lovers Into Killers novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Engagement Toast

My father threw the party the very next night.

He didn't ask me.

By six o'clock the long tables were set up in the backyard, the string lights were on, and sixty people I had known since I was born were eating baked ziti off paper plates and looking at Teo like they were pricing him.

Teo wore the one dark suit he owned and shook every hand.

He remembered every name by the second time he heard it.

The wives kissed his cheeks and told me what a nice quiet boy he was.

None of them said a word about the cellar.

Around eight, Corrado climbed onto a folding chair with a glass of red wine and clinked it with a spoon.

"Quiet, quiet, you animals!"

Everybody laughed and quieted down.

"I have known my niece since the day she was born," he said. "I held her in one hand. She threw up on my good suit."

More laughter.

"She was a serious little girl. Always asking questions. And I thought, who will ever be good enough for this one?" He turned to Teo and raised the glass. "Teodoro. I watched you walk out of that room last night. You looked a man in the eye and you did not blink. Welcome to the family."

He drank.

Sixty glasses went up.

I clapped with everybody else, and my palms stung.

Corrado hopped down off the chair and went around the table, touching glasses.

When he reached Paolo, Teo was already there.

"Paolo," Teo said, friendly. "To the family."

He held out his glass.

Paolo looked at it.

Then his hand opened, and his glass dropped onto the flagstones and broke.

Red wine ran across the stone.

Nobody moved.

"Sorry," Paolo said. His face was damp. "My hand slipped."

"It happens," Teo said, and stepped over the glass and put a hand on his shoulder.

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