Sold to the Man Who Took Me, but I Hold His Life novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: What Is Owed

I had decided it in pieces.

I had decided in the kitchen with the burning paper, and in the study doorway, and on Nana's table in the snow.

I had not known it was a decision until the moment Sal asked me.

I stood at the foot of the long table with my hands on the chair.

"What is owed to me," I said, "is not for Mr. Carbone to take."

The hall was silent.

"It's mine to name. Is that the law of this table?"

"It is," the gentleman from Philadelphia said, quietly.

"Then I'll name it."

I turned and looked at Declan.

He was sitting upright with his hands on the cloth.

He had not moved since the first word I said.

There was a white line round his mouth, but his eyes were steady.

I saw that he was ready.

He had been ready since the night he stood in his kitchen and said it aloud.

"He took the thing I had that was mine," I said. "He took it in a room where I couldn't leave. I won't pretend that can be paid."

"No," Declan said, quietly.

"Don't speak," I said.

He stopped.

"He took it, and then he gave back what he could," I said. "He put my brother's tuition on his own name. He took the door off its hinges."

"He fired the man who stood outside it. He gave the Starlite's girls the building and told them to say anything they liked before I had told him one thing."

I took a breath.

"He never once asked what I'd say. Not in the kitchen. Not the night before."

I heard Sal's cane shift against the table.

"I'm not here to tell you he's a good man. I'm here to say what's owed."

I looked at Sal Carbone.

"I won't have his life."

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