Poisoned by His Love novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Gianna's Table

I pulled on a robe and ran down the stairs.

My father stood in Gianna's kitchen in his too-big cardigan with a battered brown suitcase at his feet.

He looked like a man who had come to turn himself in.

"Dad," I said. "What is this?"

"My plan." He swallowed. "May I show you?"

He knelt and unlatched the case.

It was full of paper.

Racing forms, betting slips, a crumpled stack of tickets, and a ledger with a rubber band around it.

On top lay a pair of kitchen scissors.

"Every slip I've ever kept," he said. "Eleven years."

"I want to cut them up in front of the family at the table tomorrow."

"And I want to say it while I do."

"Say what?"

"What I did." His chin shook.

"You told me to say it out loud, Ivy. I'm going to say it where everybody can hear."

I looked at the scissors, and at the old man holding the lid of the suitcase open.

"All right," I said.

Gianna, at the stove, wiped her eyes with the dish towel and pretended it was steam.

On Sunday the long dining room was full.

Thirty Vasari relatives and four captains sat shoulder to shoulder under the candles.

Savannah stood at the foot of the table in an apron, pouring water.

Ruggero's mother sat at Sandro's left hand, in the chair that had been empty for two years.

She had asked for it herself.

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