Chapter 24: Gold Letters

"First," I said. "When I call you, you answer."

Dominic nodded.

"In a meeting, in a car, in a locked room with a basket on the table."

"I understand."

"You pick up, or you call me back within the hour, and you tell me why."

"Yes."

"And when you call me, I pick up too, even when I'm angry."

He made a sound that was half a laugh.

A few of the captains laughed with him, softly, and Renata dabbed at her eye with a handkerchief.

"Second," I said. "You don't kneel in front of these men for me again."

His eyebrows rose.

"You'll say sorry at home, to my face, in the kitchen, like a person."

"All right."

"You've humbled yourself enough in this hall. If you're wrong, you tell me, and I'll tell you if I agree."

"And if I'm right?"

"Then you'll say it, and I'll listen, and we'll probably fight about it over the sourdough."

"And you'll carry flour at the bakery at five on Saturdays. That's part of the second."

"Of course it is."

I took a breath, and the hall waited with me.

"Third. We try again, but only when I say so."

He went completely still.

"Not because you tell me at a hospital door, and not because it's what a Ventresca does."

I held his eyes.

"When I say so, in my words, in my own time. You ask me, and I tell you."

"Annie."

"Do you accept?"

"Yes." His voice cracked on it. "God, yes. All of it."

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