This Time I Choose Mr. Mafia novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: Centennial

Damiano's men looked for Danielle all night and found nothing.

Her mother didn't know where she was.

Her apartment was dark.

At eight o'clock on Saturday night, the chair at table four was still empty.

The Drake's ballroom glittered under three chandeliers.

Four hundred people in black tie stood between the tables with champagne, and a string quartet played by the windows.

A hundred years of Kinnear Shipping hung on banners over the stage.

I wore dark green silk again.

Not the same dress.

The same color, and my mother's pearls, and my wedding band.

Damiano stood at my shoulder in a black tuxedo and the dark green tie.

Nobody stood within ten feet of him, the same as in May.

The difference was that now they kept glancing at me to see if I minded.

At table two, Mr. and Mrs. Ambler sat side by side and didn't speak to each other.

The chair beside Mrs. Ambler was empty too.

At table nineteen, two detectives in rented tuxedos ate shrimp.

Between them sat a heavy young man whose hands wouldn't stay still on the tablecloth.

"She's not coming," Bruna said in my ear.

"She's coming."

My father climbed onto the little stage and tapped a spoon against his glass.

The room quieted.

"A hundred years ago this week," he began, "my grandfather bought a coal boat nobody else wanted."

The ballroom doors opened at the back.

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