Rejected by the Heir, She Married the Don novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Empty Chair

Teresa's sewing room is at the end of the east hall, with a window onto the sea and a dress form in the corner.

She had a pot of coffee waiting and the door locked.

"Sit," she said, and I thought of Dario at the terrace table.

I sat.

"There are seven seats at the council table," Teresa said. "Five for the capos, one for my brother, and one at his right hand for the Don's wife."

"The chair."

"The chair. It has stood empty since the Don's wife died."

"Why does the wife get a seat?"

"Because of how a Don falls." Teresa folded her hands. "My brother can't vote on his own fate. The five capos and the wife vote, and it takes four of the six to remove him."

I did the sum before she finished.

"Stefano has three capos," I said.

"He has three. He needs one more."

"The wife's seat is empty."

"Not for long, if he asks." Her voice went flat. "The old law says that when the wife's seat is empty, the Don's eldest son takes the vote. Stefano has just turned twenty."

I put the cup down.

"So Stefano takes the chair, and Dario falls."

"Yes. For fourteen years nobody wanted to say it out loud, because Stefano was a boy and my brother was the Don. Now he's neither."

"And me?"

"You're the wife, Elise. The ring on your hand is the ring that goes with that seat. The seat is yours, the vote is yours, and Stefano can't have it while you sit in it."

I looked at the plain gold band.

I remembered the woman Stefano had warned me about, the one who wanted a ring and a house in the city.

Dario had refused her the ring.

It had never been about the house.

"When did he know?" I said. "When I walked down the terrace, did he already know?"

Teresa met my eyes and did not lie.

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