She Tried to Poison Me, but My Plant Died First! novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Grave

The Varenna family plot sat on a hill outside the city, under an old oak, behind a low iron fence.

We went on Tuesday, in rain.

There were two hundred people at the gate, Gattuso and Varenna, standing on opposite sides of the wet grass.

My father got out of the car without a cane.

Rocco's mother waited for him at the headstone in her black coat, holding a closed umbrella.

I stood a little behind, in my vest, because nobody had yet talked me out of it.

My father walked to the stone.

He read the name carved on it.

Then he took off his hat, and the hat fell from his hand, and he went down on both knees in the mud.

Every man on the hill sucked in his breath.

Nobody had ever seen Emilio Gattuso kneel.

"Old friend," he said to the stone, in his big rough voice, so that it carried down to the gate. "I put you here. I did it for a woman's lie and my own pride."

The rain ran down his face.

"I came to say it to you where you can hear it. I should have come eleven years ago. I should have come the first night."

He bowed his head until it nearly touched the granite.

Rocco's mother stood over him with the umbrella still closed.

"Get up, Emilio," she said.

"Not yet."

"You'll catch your death, and I won't have another funeral."

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