After He Watched Me Drown, I Built My Empire novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Party That Never Was

Silvia's POV

The Delmonte party went ahead on Saturday night, with the old Don not yet buried.

Fiora's invitations had gone out three weeks earlier, and nobody had told the caterers to stop.

The ballroom of the Lake George Yacht Club was full of white roses and two hundred guests, and a string quartet played to the windows.

I walked in at eight in my mother's green dress.

Remo walked beside me in a dark suit with the patrol badge on his lapel.

Six of the crew came in behind us, and stopped inside the doors.

The quartet faltered, and then it stopped.

Fiora stood at the far end of the room beneath an arch of roses, in white.

It was not a wedding dress, but it had been chosen to look like a promise.

Her father was nowhere.

His chair at the head table was empty, with a place card still in front of it.

"Silvia," she said, over the quiet. "You weren't invited."

"Your father's man was," I said. "He was at the table this morning. He told the table everything."

A murmur went through the guests.

"The man in the gray windbreaker gave a full statement before the six seats," I said. "He gave the name of the person who ordered the bolts cut. It was your father."

"That's a lie."

"Your father left the state at noon, with two cars. He did not take you."

Fiora's lips parted.

I saw her look at the empty chair, and then at the door, and I saw her understand it, in front of two hundred people.

"He wouldn't," she said.

"He did."

"He wouldn't leave me here."

"You pushed me off a dock for a seat at a table he already lost," I said. "He didn't leave you here. He left you to pay."

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