From Scapegoat to Donna novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Dinner Bianca Set

Ignazio held a family dinner the next evening, to welcome the new Donna.

The Don was safe in a locked room at our villa, under four of Tancredi's men and Marta's knitting needles.

"We don't have to go," I said.

"If we don't, we've admitted we're afraid."

"I am afraid."

"So am I," said Tancredi. "We'll go anyway."

Ignazio's dining room was long and gold and lit with candles.

Twenty people sat down, the capos and their wives, and Bianca poured the wine herself.

She wore a green dress and her braid was pinned up, and she bent over my shoulder and smiled.

"I'm so glad you came, Adri," she said. "I've missed you at the hospital."

She smelled of lemon soap.

I thought of the tape on the port, and I smiled back.

"I've missed you too."

Halfway through the second course Ignazio rapped his glass with a spoon.

"A small matter of family business," he said. "Since the Donna is now one of us, she should know what she carries."

A man at the end of the table rose and handed him a leather ledger.

"This belonged to the Pellegrino account," Ignazio said. "Her father, the orderly. Four hundred thousand dollars borrowed from this family over eleven years, never repaid."

The wives looked at their plates.

"I'm sure the Donna will wish to settle it," Ignazio said gently. "Out of respect."

"May I see it?" I said.

He handed it over.

I turned the pages slowly.

The entries were in blue ink, in a tidy hand, each one initialed with my father's name.

I read down to the last page.

"The final loan is dated April the ninth of this year," I said.

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