After My Heart Died, The Don Begged Crying at My Feet novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Dominic's POV

Dominic's POV

My mother's kitchen has a long scrubbed table that my father once broke a man's wrist on.

Four of my captains sat around it with coffee they hadn't touched.

My mother stood at the stove with her back to them, stirring a pot nobody had asked for.

"Tell him what you told me," she said, without turning.

The eldest of the four put his cup down.

He had carried my father's coat for twenty years.

"Don Dominic. We'll stand behind you on the docks. We'll stand behind you against Pace. But we don't swear to a Nolan. A Ventresca has never knelt to anyone."

"My wife is not asking you to kneel to her father's name."

"She's asking us to kneel to a Nolan chair."

"She's asking you to stand next to the best woman you'll ever meet and put your hand up."

"With respect, that isn't what an oath is."

I looked around the table.

I knew these men, and I knew what each of them wanted, because I had been the Don for three years.

One wanted his son brought into the unions.

None of them wanted to be the first to say he'd sworn to a baker.

I could have ordered it.

A week ago I would have, and I would have been obeyed, and every one of them would have remembered who made them do it.

I took my hands off the table.

"I didn't buy my seat," I said. "I sat in it on her name. Everything you think I own, I held for her, and I've known it for five years. So I'll tell you what I'm offering, and you can say no."

Nobody spoke.

"If you swear to Anneliese on Saturday, the Ventresca cut of the port goes to the four of you, split four ways, for five years. My share. I take nothing."

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