The Don's Daughter He Left to Bleed novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Sunday Dinner

Vincent Falco's dining room seated twelve, and he had put Brooke in my chair.

I stopped in the doorway.

It was the chair at his right hand, the one I had sat in every Sunday for seven years.

Brooke sat in it with her hair down and a silk blouse the color of cream.

Gabriel sat across from her.

Nobody had set a place for me.

"Nina, sweetheart." Vincent rose from the head of the table with both arms open. "There she is. Look at you. You're so thin."

He kissed my cheek and held my shoulders at arm's length.

His cologne was the same as always, cedar and something sweet.

"Hello, Vincent."

"Who's this?" He nodded toward the man behind me.

"My driver," I said.

Giacomo, in a plain black suit with no tie, gave a small bow.

He took up a place against the wall, six feet from my chair, with his hands loose in front of him.

Vincent's eyes lingered on him a moment, and then moved on.

A housekeeper rushed in with an extra chair, and I sat down at the far end beside the empty fireplace.

"Now," Vincent said, settling himself. "We're all family here, so I'll speak plainly. What happened Saturday was a tragedy, and the press is hungry. We need to close ranks."

"Close ranks," I said.

"A united front. Gabriel and you, side by side, at a press event this week. You forgive him on camera for the confusion. He says how sorry he is. The story ends."

"The confusion."

"He was in shock, Nina." Vincent spread his hands. "Anybody can freeze."

"He didn't freeze," I said. "He walked."

Gabriel looked at his plate.

"I've asked my lawyers to draw up something generous," Vincent went on, as though he had not heard. "Two million, in your name, and the apartment stays yours. All you have to do is stay Mrs. Falco until the spring."

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