I Left the Underboss for the Man Who Remembered Me novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: He Was Told

Cesare came to the head of the hall and turned his back on me to face the old men.

"I'll say it plainly, so nobody can say I hid it," he said. "On the night of the anniversary, Miss Orsini walked out on me in front of two hundred witnesses. She took off her ring and left. Nobody forced her."

He let that sit.

"Under the old law, the one who leaves first forfeits. I didn't want to claim it. My father didn't either. But she slapped me twice at the renewal and she has refused every offer of peace."

Fiora wiped her cheek with a folded handkerchief.

"I don't want anyone to lose their home on my account," she whispered, and the whole row of old men leaned toward her.

I felt my pulse in my fingertips.

"I walked out," I said, "because he took my cake."

Somebody in the back laughed, short and surprised.

"I cooked my own birthday dinner," I said, "and he packed it in tubs while I was in the shower. He scraped my cake and carried it to her, and he never once looked back at me across the room."

"It's a dessert," Cesare said.

"It's the dishonor of the woman you were pledged to, in a room full of the men whose law you're quoting."

The old captain by the window was nodding slowly.

"He's right about one thing," he said. "The law says who leaves first. It doesn't say who drove her out."

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