The Don's Dying Wish novel · Chapter 4 of 32

Chapter 4: The Old Man's Wish

I stood at the foot of his bed with a bag of poison in my cardigan pocket.

I thought about lying.

Then I thought about his hand on my wrist at the wedding, and the whisper.

"Yes," I said. "Last night. At three."

The Don didn't move.

Then his chin started to shake.

He pressed his lips together, and two tears ran sideways into his white hair.

I had seen a lot of men cry.

Most of them did it beside a casket.

I'd never seen one cry because his son was alive.

"Come here," he said.

I sat in the chair by his bed.

He found my hand on the blanket by feel.

His ring was loose on his finger, a heavy gold signet that slid when he moved.

"Does he talk?"

"A little. He heard everything. Two years of it."

"Everything," Ambrogio repeated.

He closed his eyes.

"Then he heard me tell him I was sorry. Every night. Like a fool."

"He heard you laugh at the wedding," I said. "He told me."

The old man made a sound halfway between a cough and a sob.

Then he took a long breath and was the Don again.

"You know why you're here, girl?"

"For the debt."

"No." His grip tightened. "You're here because I asked for you."

I stared at him.

"Tiziana thinks she chose you," he said. "She thinks she found the cheapest bride in Philadelphia, a girl with a debt and no father. I let her think it."

"Why me?"

"Because your father buried my wife." His voice went rough. "Fourteen years ago. My Marcello's mother."

I remembered.

I'd been thirteen, in a black dress that itched, handing out prayer cards at the chapel door.

I remembered a tall boy in a suit who didn't take a card.

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