He Denied Our Daughter, Now He Begs for Us novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: What He Said at the Table

On the thirty-third day I didn't pack, and Santo didn't mention it.

He set a cup of coffee in front of me that morning, took his own to the window, and said, "The council sits at four."

"I know."

"They'll vote on the petition."

"I know that too."

"Moira."

"Yes?"

"You can still leave the baby here."

"I'll carry her in myself."

He nodded once, and that was the end of the discussion.

This time Santo walked through the front door of the social club with me, because the old capo had sent him a written invitation, and he held it up for the doorman to see.

The table was fuller than before.

Giacomo sat at its head in a dark suit, with Gianna's father on his right and the adviser on his left.

Gianna wasn't there.

Giacomo stood. "Gentlemen, the matter is simple. A child with no father on record lives in the house of a man who wants my chair. I ask the Family to take her in as a ward, for her own safety, until her mother is fit."

"Fit," I said.

"You've been through a great deal."

"I'm fit enough to sit here, with my hands in my lap, hearing you."

An old man smiled behind his hand.

Gianna's father leaned forward. "She lives with a Rinaldi. A single man. What is she to him?"

Silence fell.

Every head turned to Santo.

He had been leaning in his chair with one ankle on the other knee, and he did not change position.

"Since you ask," he said, "I want her in my bed."

Somebody choked.

"Santo," I said.

"I haven't touched her," he said evenly. "She hasn't asked me to. When she does, I'll be happy to oblige. Until then she sleeps across the hall from me, with a lock on her side, and I eat my dinner standing at the sink."

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