Chapter 6: Breakfast With the Council

The door opened before the phone stopped ringing.

Santino came in with two coffees and saw me looking at the screen.

He set the cups down and answered it.

"Rose. Yes. She's awake."

He listened, and his face softened in a way I had never seen it do for anyone.

"I'll bring her. This afternoon. We'll be back before midnight."

He hung up.

"That's my aunt," I said. "She disappeared when I was seven."

"She's my stepmother. She married my father at thirty."

"Under the rule."

"Under the rule," he said.

I sat up with the quilt held to my chest.

"You knew who I was the day I applied."

"Rose saw your name in the Globe three years ago. She told me to hire the best CFO in Boston."

"And you did."

"I hired you because you were."

I wanted to be angry about it.

I drank the coffee instead, and it was exactly how I take it.

At nine we went down to breakfast.

The Great Hall had been laid with silver and pastries, and every Crowninshield who had stayed for the wedding sat along the long table.

Santino held my chair.

His hand brushed the back of my neck as I sat, and nobody could have seen it, and I felt it all the way down.

Phoebe caught my eye over her orange juice and mouthed, loudly, "Oh my God."

I mouthed back, "Eat your eggs."

Harrison rose from the head of the table with a folder.

He had put on a pale blue tie and the friendly face.

"Before we begin," he said. "A small housekeeping item. The trust office has opened its annual disbursement review."

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