My Mafia Husband Chose My Sister, So I Chose My Lost Love novel · Chapter 22 of 32

Chapter 22: The Invitation

The grand jury room had no windows.

Twenty-three strangers sat in rows of chairs, in sweaters and work boots, with coffee cups.

A grandmother in the front row was knitting.

The assistant U.S. attorney stood at a little podium in his only suit.

I sat in the witness chair with a glass of water and nine black ledgers stacked on the table in front of me.

I talked for four hours.

I didn't cry once.

I explained a Friday envelope to a man who drove a bread truck.

A juror in the back asked me to slow down, and I did.

When I read the last page aloud, the grandmother in the front row stopped knitting.

She didn't start again.

When I came out, the hallway was empty.

Renato was gone. His lawyer was gone. The two capos were gone.

Only the consigliere was still there, sitting alone on the long wooden bench with his hat on his knee.

The marshal moved in front of me.

He didn't get up.

"They left separately," he said to me, past her shoulder. "In two cars. First time in twenty years."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's arithmetic," he said. "You always liked arithmetic."

He put on his hat and walked to the elevator.

Sandro went in at one o'clock.

He was in that room for two hours.

When he came out, he walked straight down the hall to the window and stood there with his back to everybody.

I went and stood beside him.

"I said it," he said. "All of it. The light. The ring. The sound when he went in the water." He breathed out. "I've been holding that sound for ten years."

"Where is it now?"

"In there. With them." He looked at me. "It's lighter."

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