The Godfather's Heartbroken Lover novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: My Mother's Cake

"Your mother put too much butter in the crust," my aunt said. "Our mother used less. Your mother was American by then. She was corrupted."

"Mom's crust was perfect."

"Mom's crust was American."

It was nine at night in the bakery on Kastanienallee.

My boss had given me the key and said, "Don't burn my father's shop down. And film the good side of the oven."

My phone was propped against a flour bin.

My aunt sat on a stool beside the counter in her good blouse, because she said if she was going to be on the internet she wasn't doing it in her robe.

"Ready?" I asked.

"I was born ready. Press the thing."

I pressed the thing.

I didn't plan what I said.

I just looked into the camera and started.

"My name is Klara Tierney. Three years ago I opened a bakery on Court Street in Carroll Gardens with every dollar I had and my mother's life insurance."

I cracked the eggs one-handed, the way my mother taught me.

"This is her bee-sting cake. Her mother made it in a kitchen on Kopenhagener Strasse in Berlin. My mother carried the recipe to New York in a notebook in 1989. She made it every Sunday of my life."

My aunt held up an old black-and-white photo to the camera without being asked.

Two little girls in a Berlin kitchen, with a tray of cake between them.

"That's me," she said. "The little one with the frown is her mother."

I laughed and almost dropped the honey.

"That notebook is still on the shelf above the oven on Court Street," I said. "I left it there in March. Right now somebody else is selling this cake out of my bakery and calling it her grandmother's recipe."

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