Chapter 9: Mass for Her Mother

Giulia's POV

Declan came back at eight with two coffees and a bag of warm pastries.

He stayed in the doorway and did not come in.

"You left," I said.

I was sitting on the bed in his torn shirt with the sheet over my knees.

"The capos' families are in Gary now. Renato can't lean on a man whose wife isn't home."

"You moved them without telling me."

"I did."

"Next time you tell me first."

He nodded once.

"Next time I wake you," he said. "Terms are terms. You started it, so I'm not allowed to start it again."

"I started it twice."

"That's why I'm still standing in the door."

I laughed, and it surprised me.

I took a coffee out of his hand and did not let go of his fingers.

"There's a Mass this morning for my mother," I said. "Twelve years, to the day. I haven't missed one since she died."

"Renato will be there."

"His mother will be there. She sits in the second pew every Sunday."

"Giulia."

"I'm going, Declan. You can come and sit at the back."

The church was Holy Family on Roosevelt Road, where I had been baptized.

The old women in the pews turned around when I walked in.

I wore my mother's rosary around my wrist.

Declan sat in the last pew with two of his men and his hat on his knee.

Renato's mother sat in the second pew in black lace, and Renato was not with her.

I knelt in the first pew and listened to the priest read my mother's name.

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