The Don's Daughter He Left to Bleed novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Offer

Vincent took me to lunch at his club, in the middle of the day, in front of forty people.

He knew what he was doing.

A man cannot easily kill his daughter-in-law over soup in a room full of judges.

"I'm so glad you came," he said, and drew out my chair himself.

I wore a plain grey dress and no ring.

Giacomo waited at the bar in a dark suit with a club soda, and I did not look at him.

The table had a small crystal vase in the middle.

It held white lilies.

"Your favorite, I think," Vincent said.

I had never told him that.

"They're lovely," I said.

"Gabriel tells me you've been staying with friends."

"I have."

"And you've decided not to sign my son's papers."

"He hasn't signed mine."

Vincent smiled, and the waiter set down two glasses of water and withdrew.

"I'm an old man, Nina," he said. "I make mistakes. On Sunday I let a stranger walk into my house and treat my family like criminals. I'd like to apologize."

"The detective was a stranger?"

"I mean the way it was done. In front of the soup."

"The soup was fine."

He laughed.

It sounded exactly the way it always had, round and warm, and it made my skin crawl.

"I'd like you to come back," he said. "Not to Gabriel. To us. The family. The network is a great deal more than a news hour. I can put you on the board. A seat, a salary, a name on a door."

"Why?"

"Because you're clever, and you're one of mine." He folded his napkin. "And because I would rather have a Castellane on my side of the table than the other."

"On your side of the table."

"I've never met your father, in all these years. Isn't that odd? I'd like to."

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