Shattered Loyalty, A New Beginning Blooms novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Valentini's Table
Don Augusto Valentini's social club sat on a quiet block in Camden, across the river, behind a door with no sign.
Inside, old men in cardigans played cards under a framed photograph of the Pope.
Nobody looked up when a doctor with a leather bag carried Santino through the back.
They only lowered their cards and waited until we had passed.
Valentini led me into a room at the rear.
It had a long polished table, eight chairs, and a gas fire.
Marta sat in the corner in a borrowed blanket with soot on her face.
Her hands were wrapped around a cup of coffee she didn't drink.
The doctor said Santino would live.
He said the stitches were good and asked who had done them.
"I did," I said.
"Hm," said the doctor, and left.
Valentini lowered himself into the chair at the head of the table and propped his cane against the wall.
"My family has been at war with Carlo Abruzzo for twenty years," he said. "Your father was the only man in Philadelphia who ever carried a wounded enemy out of a burning building. My son was twenty-two. Gianni went through the smoke and brought him out on his back, and then he went back for the cook."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Shattered Loyalty, A New Beginning Blooms are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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