After My Heart Died, The Don Begged Crying at My Feet novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Ninth Oath

The doctor who stitched Dominic's arm worked in Renata's guest room and wrote nothing down.

He said the bullet had missed the bone by a finger's width, and that a man who stood in front of guns should expect to bleed.

Then he packed his bag and left.

By Saturday morning the room smelled of antiseptic and strong coffee.

Dominic lay propped against the pillows with his arm bound to his chest.

I sat on the edge of the bed with the unmailed envelope in my lap.

Renata stood at the window with her arms folded.

She was not wearing her cross.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"In a captain's pocket." She didn't turn around. "He'll give it back on Sunday. Probably."

"What did you do?"

"I told the truth. Ask my son what he did."

"Ma," Dominic said from the pillows.

"No. She asked."

She turned and looked at me, and her eyes were wet and fierce.

"He gave up the Ventresca cut of the port. All of it, for five years, split among four men who didn't want to swear to you. He told me not to tell you."

I looked at Dominic.

He looked at the blanket.

"That's two," I said. "That's two things you've decided without me."

"I know."

"The first time was the pen and the page. The second time you took a bullet."

"That was a small step."

"Stop saying that." My voice cracked. "Stop making it small."

He reached for my hand with his good one.

I let him take it.

A knock came at the door, and Renata opened it a hand's width.

"There's a man downstairs," she said. "He says Fitz sent him."

He was the oldest captain at the table, a thin man with a white mustache and a gray hat that he held against his chest.

I had seen him on Wednesday, three tables back, with his eyes on the wood.

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