Chapter 22: What Remo Did

Nobody in the room moved.

Two captains still held Silvio by the arms at the back of the aisle, and even he had gone quiet.

Remo stood with his hands open at his sides.

"Five men asked to marry Lucia Pesaro," he said. "Each one came down these stairs and sat in these seats."

His voice carried to the last row.

"Gaetano gave me the order, and I made the films."

The oldest boss said, "Made them how?"

"I took her voice from the recordings she made of herself. A dog, a sink, a phone call to her cousin."

Bianca made a small sound beside me.

"I cut them into sentences she never said," Remo said. "I put them under a stranger's face."

He took a breath.

"I ran the machine, and I said, 'Roll it,' and I watched every one of those men believe it."

"She never knew," said the boss from Woonsocket.

"She never knew."

"You let her think she was unlovable."

"Yes."

"For how long?"

Remo looked at me for the first time.

"Six years," he said. "I held her after every one of them."

His voice did not shake.

"I drove her home and I held the umbrella. I knew why they left, and I said nothing."

The room was so quiet that I heard the plaster settling on the carpet.

"I did it for her father," Remo said. "I told myself it was for her. It was also for me."

"For you," the oldest boss said.

"Because I wanted her, and I was glad when they went."

A long breath went out of the front row.

I did not look away from him.

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