Chapter 17: The Don Breaks

I came out of the supply room at a run, with Rocco right behind me.

The monitor was still shrieking.

The security man was already through the door, and two capos came in on his heels.

My mother stood with her wrist in my father's grip and her face rearranging itself.

I watched it happen.

The shock went first, then the tears, then the trembling lip of a woman who has been frightened half to death.

"Emilio," she gasped. "Thank God. You were having a nightmare, darling, you were thrashing, and Fiora and I only wanted to calm you."

"With a syringe."

"A nurse left it. I was moving it away."

"You turned off the camera."

"The camera has been broken for days."

"You told our daughter to say goodbye to me."

"I was talking to her about the funeral you were afraid of. You mishear everything when you're ill."

My father let go of her wrist.

He sat with his hands on his knees, and I saw him look at the woman he had been married to for thirty years.

It was the longest look I have ever seen one person give another.

"Did you put her on the doorstep?" he said.

"Who?"

"Our daughter."

"Emilio, that girl has poisoned your mind."

"Answer me."

"I did nothing but love both my girls."

Fiora had been standing against the wall with her hands over her mouth.

Now she took them away, and her face was blotched and wild.

"Stop lying!" she screamed. "Stop it, Mama, stop it, he heard you!"

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