My Don Married My Pregnant Sister So I Choose His Mafia Rival novel · Chapter 17 of 32

Chapter 17: Envelope Four

I took her fingers off my sleeve one at a time.

"No," I said.

Her eyes went wide.

She hadn't thought I could say it to her.

Nobody in our family ever had.

"Papa left you a trust," I said, "so you'd never have to ask a man for money. He didn't leave you a price on him."

"Marcella, I'm not joking."

"Neither am I. You'll tell me for free, or you'll tell a judge."

I pushed through the swinging door.

Ornella was still at the head of the dining table with her cold coffee.

"Leaving so soon, boat girl?"

"Your silver's lovely," I said. "You should polish it yourself."

The deckhand met me at the loading door in Red Hook.

He had flour on his shirt and a look on his face.

"He's on the roof," he said. "He's been on the roof since you left. He did four crosswords. In pen."

"So?"

"He got one wrong, Captain. I've never seen him get one wrong."

I went up.

Somewhere down on Van Brunt Street a brass band was tuning up for the feast, all of them in different keys.

Ettore sat on the old wooden bench beside the coop in his shirtsleeves, with a newspaper folded on his knee and the pen capped.

He stood up when he saw me.

He waited.

"I read it," I said.

"I know."

"Nonna says my grandfather lied to her once to spare her, and she didn't speak to him for a month."

"A month." He nodded slowly. "I can do a month."

"It's been eight hours."

"I know exactly how long it's been."

I crossed the roof.

I stopped in front of him.

"You should've given it to me at city hall," I said.

"Yes."

"Or in the car, when I was crying into your handkerchief."

"Yes."

"You're not going to argue?"

"I argued with myself for two years. I lost every time." He looked down at me. "I'm sorry, Marcella. Not for taking it. For keeping it from you after I married you. That one was cowardice, and I called it kindness."

I'd come up the stairs ready for a fight.

There wasn't one left.

"She offered me a deal," I said. "Angelina. The Todt Hill deed, and she'll tell me where she was."

His face went very still.

"What did you say?"

"I said no."

He looked down at me.

"You could have had it today."

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