The Mob Boss Said My Father Owed Him a Life, So He Took Mine to Keep novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Door Is Open
I told them what I wanted at the head of the table, in front of forty people and a plate of cold short rib.
"My father safe," I said.
"Not hidden.
"Safe, in his own flat on Broadway, with his own key and his own diner on Thursdays.
"And nobody following him there."
"He will have two of my men on the street," Rosaria said.
"Until he tells them to go.
"He may tell them to go on Monday."
My father, in the doorway, made a small choked noise.
"My name," I said.
"I want the family to say my name in their houses, and mean it, so no child in this neighborhood ever hears 'bookkeeper's girl' in that voice again."
The old man with the white mustache rose from his chair.
"Signorina Delmonico," he said, with a stiff little bow.
"I will say it at every table I sit at, until I die."
A wife in black began to clap, awkwardly, and then another, and I stood there with my face on fire.
"And the captain's bills," I said.
"All of them.
"Without telling him whose money it is."
"Done," said Rocco.
"And my flat, and my job," I said.
"I want my badge back, and my boat, and my own front door.
"I want to walk out of this house today, on my own feet, as I walked into it."
Rosaria's black eyes held mine for a long moment.
Then she nodded, once, very slowly.
"That is a fair thing to want," she said.
"Eat something first."
It was after nine when we were alone.
The house was empty and dark except for the study, where a green lamp burned.
Rocco stood behind the desk with both hands on the blotter.
The bottle of grappa sat where it always sat, with its seal unbroken, and beside it, on the leather, lay three things in a row.
A brass key on a ring.
A folded paper with a notary's stamp.
A set of car keys with a black fob.
I stood in the doorway in my gray dress, and my father's peacoat, and I looked at them.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Mob Boss Said My Father Owed Him a Life, So He Took Mine to Keep are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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