Chapter 21: Noon at the Diner

Livia's POV

"Tomorrow at noon," I told my father. "The diner on Route 4. Come in the front."

"I said alone."

"I said witnesses."

He looked down the table at the old man, who raised his thick eyebrows and said nothing.

"Noon," my father said.

At eleven the next day I was in an apron.

It was my own apron, bought at the restaurant supply store with my own tips, and it had no initials on it.

The owner leaned on the pass with his arms folded.

"That him?" he asked, when the bell on the door rang.

"That's him."

"I'll be right here."

My father stopped inside the door and looked at the booths and the counter and the laminated menu.

I think he had never been in a diner.

Bianca sat at the counter with a milkshake, trying not to stare, and Elio was on the next stool.

Valerio sat in the back booth with his coffee and the paper, and he did not look up.

In the window, the old capo's van idled at the curb with the nurse at the wheel.

"Table for one?" I said.

My father took the booth by the window and put his hat on the seat.

"Coffee," he said.

I poured it.

He watched me do it.

I set down the cup, and the spoon, and the little steel pitcher of cream.

"I owe you an apology," he said.

"Go ahead."

"I should have looked into the matter of your page. I was misled by the consigliere."

I waited.

"You were an excellent worker. I see now that you were wasted in the house."

"Okay."

"So I'd like to offer you something."

He folded his hands.

"The consigliere's chair is empty. The Family has no one to keep the book."

"You know every number, every shift, every code. And your page is clean. There isn't another person alive I can say that about."

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