Their Father Called Me Family, So His Four Sons Made Me Theirs novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Sunday
On the second Sunday of April I set my own table for ten, with four chairs on one side and mine at the head.
Dario had hung the joke sign on the porch in December and refused to take it down.
It said: THE PRESTIA HOUSE. IANNUCCIS ADMITTED BY APPOINTMENT.
Nobody had ever made an appointment.
The windows were open to the first warm evening, and the whole ridge smelled of cut grass and the last orange blossom.
Marco carved the roast.
Nico poured the wine and kept count of the glasses, out of habit, and then caught himself and stopped counting.
Luca set the plates in a straight line, each one folded to the edge of the cloth.
Dario told the story of the Elvis for the third time, with a new ending.
The Chicago partner's son laughed so hard that he had to put down his fork.
He had come with his wife, the pediatric nurse from Evanston, who had a laugh he could pick out of any crowded room.
She sat at my left hand, and she had been watching the five of us all evening.
"Can I ask something?" she said, over the pie.
"Please."
"What are you, exactly? To each other?"
The table went quiet.
I looked down the row at them.
Marco had his glasses folded in his pocket, and Dario's ring caught the lamp.
Luca sat beside Nico with his scarred hand resting flat on the cloth.
I touched the chain at my throat.
Four gold bands slid warm against my skin, a small weight I no longer noticed, and I lifted them where she could see.
"Whose rings are those?" she asked.
"Mine," I said.
"They're all hers," Dario said.
"And they're all his," Nico said, quietly, and held up his hand.
His own band hung on a thin chain around his neck.
So did Luca's.
So did Marco's, and so did Dario's.
Each of them drew the chain out of his collar and let the gold lie in the lamplight.
The nurse looked from one to the next.
"Oh," she said softly. "Oh, I see."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Their Father Called Me Family, So His Four Sons Made Me Theirs are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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