Chapter 23: A Place at the Table

The ballroom emptied slowly.

The Lupo men went out first, quiet, with their hats in their hands.

The Vannozzi uncles followed, and then the captains, and then the staff in their white jackets.

At the end of the long table sat Aurelio, with Sandro on his left and Bianca on his right.

An empty chair stood on his other side.

"Sit," the Don said to me.

I sat in the empty chair.

It was the one beside him, where his wife had sat.

"My rule was a bad one," said Aurelio.

Bianca looked up, startled.

"I made it the year my wife died, when I was afraid of everyone," he said.

"It handed my own people to the men who hurt us.

"I will not have it in this house again."

He laid his hand flat on the cloth.

"This is the new rule.

"Nobody who sits at this table is ever handed to anyone.

"Not by me, and not by my heir."

"Papa," said Sandro.

"You have the chair, Sandro. Tomorrow I will say so to the captains."

My husband stared at him.

"I'm the one who killed him," said Sandro.

"You're the one who read the letter," said the Don. "I was the one who did not."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Bianca. The Lupo cousin is finished. The engagement is cancelled, and no one will arrange another for you."

"Thank God," said Bianca, and burst into tears.

She cried into her napkin, and her father put his big arm round her.

Over her head he looked at me.

"You will have a place at this table as long as I live," he said.

"As my daughter, not as my son's wife who puts up with me."

I could not find an answer.

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