He Replaced His Wife and Lost His Mafia Empire novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Widow's Seat
The ring of keys on Daniele's driver's seat opened one house, and I found it by trying the gate.
It was the old stone house at the back of the Greco grounds, the one Agnese's husband had built before the big house existed.
I had seen its roof from the lawn for five years and never been asked in.
I drove Daniele's car up the lane with the second ledger inside my coat and the wipers going.
The porch light came on before I reached the steps.
Agnese opened the door in a gray wool robe, leaning on her silver-topped cane.
"He sent you the keys," she said.
"He left them on a seat."
"Then he got one thing right this week." She stood back. "Come in. You're soaked."
Her kitchen was small and yellow, with a kettle already steaming.
She put a towel in my hands and a cup in front of the chair, and she did not ask me anything until I had drunk half of it.
"You've quarreled with the Santangelo boy," she said.
"How do you know that?"
"You came alone, in the rain, in my grandson's car. Sit up."
I put the second ledger on the oilcloth between us.
"He found out my brother ordered his brother's death," I said. "He found the slip in a widow's cupboard this morning and carried it all day. He stood in the hall tonight and said nothing until Paolo had said it all."
"Did he lie to you?"
"He kept it from me."
"For how long?"
"A day."
Agnese turned her cup on its saucer.
"My husband kept a mistress from me for eleven years," she said. "Your brother has kept five years from you, and you walked out of a man's house over one afternoon."
"That's not the same."
"No," Agnese said. "That's what I'm telling you. Be angry at him as long as you like. But he is not the one who sent you into that house."
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