He Faked My Death, So I Let My Family Bury Me novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: The Ledger

Rosaria's POV

I walked into the hall in a green dress, with the whole Family looking at a dead woman.

Chairs scraped.

Somebody swore.

The oldest capo stood so fast his chair went over.

On the wall my mother's handkerchief fell from her fist and lay on the floor.

My father had his back to me.

He heard the chairs, turned in his seat, and saw me.

His face went grey.

At the head of the table Gaspare did not move.

He looked at me across twelve men and forty feet of floor, and I saw nothing in his face at all.

Then his hand opened flat on the wood, and his shoulders came down.

"Signora," he said.

I knew that voice.

It was the one he used in front of the Family, and underneath it his voice was shaking.

I walked up the length of the table.

Nella came behind me with the bag.

I stopped beside my husband's chair and put the wrapped crate lid down on the polished wood in front of my father.

I unwrapped it.

It was a piece of pine, burned with letters.

Bonfiglio & Sons, Palermo Fish.

"Good morning, Papa," I said.

"Rosaria." He stood.

He was white and sweating, and he was already smiling.

"Madonna. Rosaria, my girl. They told us..."

"They told you I burned."

"Yes. Yes, we mourned you. Cara, tell her."

My mother did not answer.

"You've seen that lid before," I said. "There are six crates behind a wall of pallets in your cold room. Thirty places for rifles. They went out under the ice on the Tuesday before the banquet."

"Lies."

"To the north dock gate, Warehouse Four."

"This is a trick, someone has put this woman up to..."

I set the delivery sheet on top of the lid.

Gaspare had taken it from his pocket, and passed it over without a word.

"Your name is at the bottom."

"A forgery."

"Your hand."

"Anyone can sign a P and a B."

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