The Mafia Heir's Revenge Baby novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Pop's Table

Pop didn't put me at the end.

I came into the dining room at seven with Gianni behind me.

The whole family was already at the long table, and there was one empty chair.

It was at the old man's right hand.

Carmine's chair.

The aunts watched me look at it.

"Sit," Pop said. "It's a chair. It doesn't bite."

I sat.

Gianni took the chair across from me, at Pop's left, where he'd sat at the birthday.

Archie had wanted to come.

He'd also wanted to swim, and the Bellevue had a pool with a window over the whole city.

The pool had won.

Bess had promised him one hour and a grilled cheese.

The gravy went around.

So did the braciole.

The aunt who made it put a piece on my plate and looked at me.

"I know you fed it to the dog," she said.

"I'm sorry."

"The dog was fat for five years. Eat it now."

I ate it.

It was still terrible.

I didn't feed it to anybody.

Halfway through the pasta, Pop put down his fork.

"Everybody heard what she did on the television this morning," he said.

The table went quiet.

"She gave the police her machine for nothing. Fifty of them. By next Monday, every hair in this city has a name on it."

He looked around the table at his capos, his nephews, his sisters.

"You know what that means. It means what we do is finished. Not tomorrow. But soon."

Nobody said anything.

One of the capos looked at me with something close to hate.

Pop saw it.

"Look at her like that again," he said mildly, "and you can eat in the kitchen."

The capo looked at his plate.

Pop turned to me.

"Forty years I've had men at this table who'd kill for me," he said. "Not one of them ever walked into a room and finished it. You did it in a pair of jeans."

"I wore a suit the first time."

"I remember. You wore white into a room full of my men like it was your wedding."

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