Chapter 17: The Hearing

The Table met at noon in the back room of the social club on Bay Street.

It was a long room with a green felt table, five high-backed chairs, and one low chair set a little behind the others.

The low chair was mine.

Nonna had polished it that morning with lemon oil, and she had said nothing about it.

Vincent walked in ahead of me and took the Strozzi seat.

My uncle already sat across from him, in cashmere, with his ringed hands folded on the felt.

Three more bosses filled the other chairs.

The oldest, a white-haired man from Red Hook, sat at the head.

One of the others had hated my uncle for ten years, and one owed him money.

The last, a quiet man from the Bronx, looked at nobody.

The gold-tooth capo stood against the back wall with the rest of Vincent's men.

He nodded to me, friendly, as I sat down.

Across the room, in a folding chair by the door, the doctor held his leather bag on his knees and looked sick.

"This is a hearing," the old boss said. "Carmine Cardello has asked for it, as blood kin to the wife. Carmine, speak."

My uncle stood.

He did it slowly, a big man buttoning his jacket.

"I've known this girl since she was twelve years old," he said. "I buried her mother and father.

"I walked her down the aisle to this man's family because I believed he'd treat her well."

He turned to look at me, and his eyes were wet.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Mafia Husband Fed Me Birth Control, So I Took His Throne from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.