They Spoke Sicilian Over My Head, So I Called My Don Grandfather novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Remo on His Knees

It was raining hard when we got there.

Remo knelt on the wet sidewalk in front of my building in his good gray coat, with his hands open on his knees.

Water ran off his hair and down his face.

He had been there an hour, the doorman told Massimo, and had refused an umbrella.

Three of his soldiers stood by a black car at the curb.

They kept their eyes on the pavement.

The old man with the cane from the mailboxes watched from the lobby door, and the woman in running clothes had come down too.

I got out of the car in the green dress with Massimo's coat over my shoulders.

Remo looked up.

"Fio."

His voice cracked on it.

"Get up, Remo," I said.

"No. Not until you listen."

"Then stay there. I'll listen."

I stopped three steps away, in the light of the doorway.

Massimo stood a pace behind me, and I did not look back to see where his hands were.

"I was wrong," Remo said. "I know it. I was an idiot. I was a coward, and you're right to hate me. But I never wanted to hurt you. I swear on my mother."

"You called me a commoner."

"I was talking to Cinzia. It was nothing. It was business talk."

"You called me useful."

"I'll give it all back," he said quickly. "The buildings, the money. I'll sign everything over right now. I'll marry you, Fio. Tomorrow. At the courthouse."

I looked down at him.

I waited for something to move in my chest.

Nothing did.

"Do you know what I remember most from this month?" I said.

"Tell me. Anything."

"The night I had a fever of a hundred and two."

His face flickered.

"I called you," I said, loudly enough that his three soldiers heard, and the doorman, and the old man in the doorway. "I was on my bathroom floor, shaking. I couldn't stand up. I called you because I was frightened."

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