Chapter 21: Both Daughters

On Sunday I wore the black dress I had hemmed myself, with my mother's gold hoops.

I had darned the cuff with her thread that morning, because my hands needed something to do.

Rocco watched me from the bedroom door and said nothing.

"The doors only lock from the kitchen panel," he said finally.

"The union man's cousin wired them. He told Sandro the whole thing."

"So Sandro goes through the back."

"Sandro goes through the back. The Dons go in the front, forty of them, because they've all been invited."

"And me?"

"You go in last," Rocco said. "On your own two feet, as Aldo asked."

I put the second earring in.

"He wants both of us at the table," I said. "He'll get both of us."

"Livia."

"You said I'm free to go any day I choose. I choose Taylor Street."

He crossed the room and put his forehead against mine.

He did not argue, and I loved him for it, in a way I had not said aloud yet.

Corsetti's restaurant has a green awning and a brass door.

There was a doorman in a dark suit I had never seen.

Paola walked in ahead of me, since she had asked to.

She gave the man her coat as if she had nothing to hide.

The dining room was set for sixty.

White cloths, candles, and every Don in Chicago seated along the right side with their wives, uneasy, in their good clothes.

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