Chapter 23: My Terms

I stood at the head of the long table, where I had never been allowed to stand.

The elder had passed me the ledger, and I held it open in both hands.

My father sat with his head bowed.

My mother sat beside him, and for the first time in a year she was not holding anyone's wrist.

"I'm going to say my terms once," I said. "You can say yes to all of them, or I walk out and you never see my name again."

"Say them," the elder said.

"One. The word daughter of the blood comes out of every page in this book. I'm Nerina Brancato. That's the whole line."

"Done," the elder said, and drew a pen through it.

"Two. Clause nine is burned in front of this table, and no treaty after it names a woman."

Raimondo stood at the foot of the table and took the yellow paper out of his coat.

He walked to the fire.

He held it over the flames until the black bird and the Brancato crest curled together and fell apart.

Nobody spoke.

"Three," I said. "I sit on this council. Not as a daughter. As counsel. Every deal in this family goes past my desk before it goes to the docks."

My father lifted his head.

"You'd work for us?"

"I'd work for the family that asks a question before it makes a decision. That's the only family I'll have."

"Yes," he said.

"Four. My brothers answer a question from me, in front of the council, once a month, for a year. Any question I choose."

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