Chapter 18: Sign Here

My father came to my door at ten the next morning, alone, in the same black coat.

Two Corvi men stood on the landing.

They had not stopped him, because I had told them to let him through.

I took the chain off.

He stood in my hallway and looked at the small kitchen, the couch, the single plant on the sill.

"You bought this yourself," he said.

"With my first fee."

"It's a good apartment."

"Dad. Say what you came to say."

He took a long breath and sat on the couch with his hands between his knees.

He did not look like a Don.

"I want you to come back," he said. "I want you to put your name in the ledger again. I'll have the elder redo it today."

"With the same blood and the same knife?"

"With whatever you want."

"And the Gravesend?"

"They'll hold off, if the Corvis stand with us. The Corvis stand with us if the treaty stands."

"So I sign, and I marry Raimondo."

"You don't have to marry anyone." He lifted his eyes. "I'll tell him so myself. I only need the clause alive."

"You need me to be your alibi."

"I need my family to live through the winter."

I sat down across from him.

I took out my phone and set it on the table between us, and he watched me press record.

"I'm going to ask you something," I said. "I asked once, on the Corvi steps, and you didn't answer."

"Ask."

"In a year you never drove across the city to see me. Not once. Why?"

He looked at his hands.

I waited, and the refrigerator hummed in the next room.

"Because I was afraid you'd ask me a question," he said at last.

"What question?"

"Why I was so glad you'd been found."

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