He Took His Childhood Friend Away, So I Came Back a Mafia Heiress novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Earning

On Sunday morning the chain-link fence around the burned wing had been taken down.

Someone had raked the black beams away, and the ground was bare and brown.

Aurelio stood in the middle of it with his document case open on a sawhorse.

Rocco stood beside him in a plain gray coat, with his hands in clean bandages.

His mother was there too, in black, with her back very straight.

So were Pasquale in his wheelchair, and two of the old Santoro drivers, and three of my father's captains.

I came up the walk and understood that they were witnesses.

"Signora," Aurelio said, and his voice shook with pleasure. "Please. Mr. Santoro has something to sign."

Rocco took the pen.

He didn't read the papers.

He had read them the night before.

"The Santoro warehouses on Doremus Avenue," he said, loudly enough for the yard. "The trucking company. The house on Mount Prospect, which was my uncle's and is now forfeit. The shares in the Newark produce market."

He signed.

"My share of the family holdings."

He signed again.

"These go to the Rinaldi estate, against eleven million four hundred thousand dollars. It won't cover it. It's what I have."

His mother lifted her chin and said nothing.

It cost her more than it cost him.

"I keep my mother's house and my car," Rocco said. "I keep the coat I'm standing in. Everything else is hers."

He put down the pen.

"I resign as head of the Santoro family. My mother and the drivers will choose someone better."

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