Chapter 10: Don Corvaia Comes to Dinner

Three black cars came up the drive of Villa Ardizzone at eight o'clock exactly.

The gold-toothed driver opened my door, and I stepped out at the door of the house my brother had barred me from on the church steps.

Santo came around the car and offered me his arm.

He wore the black suit and a white shirt with the collar open, and no coat.

Every guard along the drive watched him pass and looked at the gravel.

"They know," I said under my breath.

"Some of them."

"Does my brother?"

"He will in about a minute."

The doors opened, and the dining room was full of light.

Twelve heads of families sat along a table laid for sixteen.

Massimo stood at the far end with a glass in his hand, smiling with triumphant ease.

Nerina sat at his left in green silk, with the black medal at her throat.

Tullio sat across from her, and beside Tullio was an empty chair.

"Don Corvaia," Massimo said warmly, and came forward with his hand out.

"At last. We've waited a long year for this honor. And you've brought your wife, how--"

He stopped.

He had looked at Santo's face.

The room, which had been murmuring, went completely silent.

The hand in the air began very slightly to shake.

"You," Massimo said.

"Good evening, Massimo," said Santo.

"You were on the steps."

"I was."

"You are--"

"I am what you asked the Table to find for a year," Santo said, pleasantly. "You never asked what I looked like."