Chapter 4: Half

I put my fork down in the lasagna pan.

"The building isn't for sale, Ma."

"Don't be dramatic," my mother said. "You haven't heard the number."

The man in the vest turned his tablet around so I could see it.

"One point six million," he said. "Cash, thirty days. We'd keep the facade."

"You'd keep the facade," I said.

"It's a charming facade."

Connie snorted into the pan.

My mother set her handbag on my counter, right on top of Nonno's burn mark.

"Your sister is having a baby," she said. "She has no husband. She has no job. She needs security."

"She has an apartment in Bay Ridge."

Valentina's eyes went wide and wet.

"I'm only thinking of the baby, Lili."

"Then think of it somewhere else."

The bell over the door rang.

The old barber from two doors down stuck his head in.

"Everything okay, Lili? I heard yelling."

"Everything's fine."

He didn't leave. He leaned in the doorway with his scissors still in his hand.

Behind him the woman from the fish market was standing on the sidewalk in her rubber apron, pretending to read our window.

My mother lowered her voice, which made it worse.

"You had your turn," she said. "You married a rich man. You don't need this place."

"I'm divorcing the rich man."

The developer looked up from his tablet.

Valentina put her hand over her mouth.

"Oh no," she said. "Is it because of me?"

I ignored her.

"Nonno left this building to both of us," I told my mother. "Not to you."

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